Re: Content management

[Helen OBoyle <hoboyle -at- gmail -dot- com>]

[ Resending because I didn't hit Reply All and think this info is of
general interest ]

Hi,

I'll echo Jeff's concerns about changes to Confluence. Although they
haven't changed the editor on the server version of Confluence - YET - I
can't imagine they'd fork the product like that, so my assumption is that
the server version will get it eventually. Most disquieting to some Cloud
users was the rollout of these major changes, which in some cases broke
functionality users depended on, as if it was little more than a routine
update similar to the continuous updates that occur to dinner delivery apps
and iPhone games. Somewhere in the chain of people who approved that
deployment strategy, there appeared to be a lack of recognition that many
businesses have concerns beyond getting the latest updates to the
applications they use ASAP. It may be the case that Atlassian expects all
companies making such mission critical bets on their software to use the
more-controlled Server platform, rather than the Cloud platform. (?) From a
management perspective, it appears to have been a rare strategic mis-step
by Atlassian.

A challenge with using Confluence as a main internal information repository
for a significant volume of information is that discoverability is
suboptimal due to rudimentary at best search functionality. Other issues
with the platform can largely be looked past as an annoyance. This,
however, significantly affects product usefulness when one can't offset it
by exposing one's site to Google and letting Google handle searching, for
example -- which many companies wouldn't want to do with their proprietary
information.

More about this: Writers in my org have no control over the facilities
provided by our centrally-managed Confluence server or its configuration,
because it's an enterprise tool, not a writing-group-only tool. I created a
search page that did result in more appropriate search results without
users having to write complex queries that an end user would never write by
hand. We couldn't use it because it tanked server performance to do such
complex searches referencing so many non-indexed fields. Correspondingly,
asking our IT department for those fields to be custom-indexed would likely
create more of a load on the server to maintain the indices, which is a
non-starter as well. I'm willing to believe that you can with work and
technical expertise customise its search to work better, as I had a good go
at it myself. But based on experience, this will up hardware requirements
over what's required for the "out of the box" experience and require
ongoing in-house maintenance of custom search functionality -- generally
not things organisations are that fond of, if given a choice.

There are a number of other gotchas that may or may not impact an org
depending on how you use the product. From a content-creation perspective,
it also creaks under the strain of editing large documents, particularly
when those documents include large tables or lots of markup such as you
might find on a product glossary page. This has been a known issue in
Confluence's issue reporting system for years; the new editor as seen in
the Confluence Cloud version may or may not address it. We also use it as a
publishing platform for documents created in other tools, and are uncertain
as to what we'll be required to do, to keep that publishing working when/if
Confluence server moves to the new editor which I believe also uses a new
document format.

As a technical writer who documents software, the lack of ability to
personalise the editing environment with time-saving macros I write myself
to automatically add new section headers dependent on other content on the
page, check adherence to terminology requirements and accuracy of API
parameter and database field names, automatically add labels to content,
and so on during editing affects productivity. The Confluence model for
efficient creation of multiple pages containing the same type of
information involves the use of pre-defined templates (you can create your
own to add to the template library) that offer a starting point, but the
editing environment appears to be not configurable beyond that without
significant development. This is enough for many, but for technical writers
accustomed to more customisable environments - and with enough scripting
skills to automate parts of their work - it's a step backward.

That said, non-writer end users find it relatively easy to use for content
creation, although most still require some training - so it's really a case
of trading off advanced functionality in editing, version control, and
print output formatting (not needed by all sites), for something simple for
the general population to use. Some of that advanced functionality can be
put into the product by buying third party add-ons. If you remember the VB
ecosystem and "custom controls", the Atlassian platform seems to be quite
like that, in that some relatively important functionality isn't included
by the core product and you have to buy it from third parties. Add-ons vary
in pricing considerably, particularly when one gets up into high user
counts. Any cost analysis of the platform should factor in the licensing of
any required extra bits as well.

Kind regards,

Helen.

On Wed, Jan 29, 2020 at 10:50 AM Shari Punyon <sharipunyon -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:

> Iâve used confluence, and so far I havenât personally used something
> better. It does have limitations and if you are trying to create nicely
> formatted customer-facing documents, you probably need to massage it and
> use add ons. But so far, Iâve tried sharepoint, google docs/drive  and
> servicenow (no option ever my choice) and itâs hands down the best out of
> those options. I havenât yet tried layering google sites over google drive,
> but I am thinking it will still not match confluence.
>
> That said, Iâve never had the chance to research and pick, so depending on
> your needs, something better might exist.
>
> > On Jan 28, 2020, at 4:05 PM, Jeff Scattini <jeff -dot- scattini -at- gmail -dot- com>
> wrote:
> >
> > ïWe also use Confluence for internal and external documentation.
> >
> > However, word of warning, Atlassian has been making changes to the Cloud
> > (OnDemand) version of the Confluence editor that are... less than
> > desirable and the editor is in a state of flux. (IMHO)
> >
> > If you are looking at complex, single-sourced robust documentation, you
> > will be better served with a Server version of Confluence. There are
> > several third-party vendors who can host the server version so your
> > maintenance effort is not onerous.
> >
> >> On Tue, Jan 28, 2020 at 12:46 PM John G <vwritert -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:
> >>
> >> We use Atlassian's Confluence application for our world-wide company
> with
> >> 2500 employees. We create our end-user documentation as a wiki in an
> area
> >> that has multiple add-ons to support translations, versioning, improved
> >> presentation, etc. Other areas are unavailable to external users and do
> not
> >> use as many add-ons. It's easy to use for authors, and keeps track of
> >> everything quite nicely.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> On Mon, Jan 27, 2020 at 5:43 PM Lindsay Dixon Garcia <
> >> lindsay -dot- garcia -at- hapara -dot- com> wrote:
> >>
> >>> Hello all! I am a content manager at a software company and I work
> with a
> >>> variety of departments to manage and create content (Support,
> Marketing,
> >>> Training, Sales, etc.). I'm looking for a tech solution to manage all
> of
> >>> this content in a smarter way! I need something that can make finding
> >>> content easier for others in the company, and also that helps
> streamlines
> >>> content updates when we introduce new features or products. Does such a
> >>> solution exist? Thank you in advance!
> >>>
> >>> --
> >>>
> >>> Lindsay Dixon Garcia
> >>> Head of Content at HÄpara
> >>> m: (682)365-8258
> >>> a: PO Box 3117, Redwood City, CA 94064 United States
> >>> w: www.hÄpara.com <http://www.xn--hpara-fwa.com> <
> http://www.xn--hpara-fwa.com> <
> >> http://www.xn--hpara-fwa.com> <http://www.hapara.com/>
> >>> t: @hÄpara_team
> >>> <https://www.twitter.com/hapara_team>
> >>> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> >>> Visit TechWhirl for the latest on content technology, content strategy
> >> and
> >>> content development | https://techwhirl.com
> >>>
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