Atlassian Confluence Funktionen, Bewertungen & Alternativen

Vorteile

A great collaboration tool where all project documents (from major project plan to reports to release cycle to simple meeting notes) can be organized and shared in one centralized location.
The confluence editor feature makes it easier for me to create documents, review and share feedback and changes can be tracked thru page histories.
Spaces are well organized and structured. There are page shortcuts, page trees, breadcrumb trails that aid users to navigate between pages and information.
It is easy to build links within pages by adding an anchor. You don't need to remember which part of the page you have read a certain information and do page scroll.
I like the gliffy plugin. Whenever I need to embed a workflow diagram, adding gliffy makes it easier to attach flowchart, it's dynamic as changes in the diagram is reflected in the page.
I can highlight people in my reports or meeting notes by tagging them
Documenting a test report is easier with the JIRA integration - JIRA issues highlighted and linked and JIRA issue filters can be embedded and since these two (JIRA and Confluence) work hand in hand, it makes delivering software in agile approach a lot easier.

Nachteile

To beautify your confluence page, you need to know which macros and plugins you need to add but by doing these, one needs to have very basic knowledge in html or programming which could be a learning curve to most people. But lots of how to videos are shared by Atlassian and lots of documented procedures are out there shared by experienced users. One just need to be resourceful. The challenges in embedding spreadsheet with macros and formatting tables are not a challenge anymore if you know what macro or plugin to use.

Another issue is sometimes finding the information you are seeking is not successful and sometimes the information search for spans to multiple pages - but information actually can be managed by adding labels which again boils down to the user having the knowledge that this feature exists.

Verteilung der Bewertung

Vorteile

We use the cloud version for customer facing knowledge base (KB). A great tool for creating and maintaining documentation and how-to articles.

Allows for numerous contributors, there are a lot of add-ons for features and functionality within a document.

Syncs well with other Atlassian tools.

Theme controls are fairly robust.

The search is in depth and comprehensive, returns results from tags and body of a page or article.

User community and KB is very helpful and responsive.

Nachteile

Our users are our customers, so inviting confusing and creating users is convoluted and limited. Once you designate the space as a KB, Confluence should provide user access in a way unique to a KB, but it the invitation process is still worded like a collaboration tool AND emails are NOT customizable.

Users get bombarded by emails when a page is updated. The default setting is to have all users automatically watching the entire space, so when any update is made multiple emails are sent. You CANNOT set the user or group defaults for email preferences.

SSO capabilities are not available in the cloud version.

The user web service is severely limited and does not solve the issue.

While there are a ton of add-ons from the marketplace, they are all 3rd party and these can deliver way more than Atlassian's supported offerings. This was a pro, but the con is that they are also limited to what they can tie into. We tried to use a theme from the market place, but it did not support the comprehensive search capabilities, only returned tags.

Admin navigation is confusing, I use the product every day, yet I am constantly fumbling around trying to find where to go to do what I'm trying to do.

Verteilung der Bewertung

Vorteile

- Lots of visual tools for organizing information, as well as molding communications: gliffy diagrams, code blocks, cells, spreadsheets.
- Permissions model for segmenting information is greatly useful for organizations that create lots of documents and require some controls on searching and access to documents based on role.
- Web-based interface for administrators of Confluence is convenient for managing content, delegation and authorization work.
- There are many free software solutions in this sector of software, but generally require significant development to provide the value and features offered by confluence out of the box.
- Development and improvements continue to be deployed, Confluence has not been static
- Add-ons available through Atlassian marketplace to allow for further feature-adds for organization needs. I work in an IT environment, and diagrams for networks, software, process flows are invaluable for documentation purposes.
- Shortcut commands for savvy power users saves lots of time inserting tools and setting up formatting with ease, once you are aware them.

Nachteile

- Having used confluence for over 6 years, I have seen Confluence become more reliable with every update. At times, when something would go wrong with text formatting (bullet point indentation, for example), a power user could go to a tab of the document page you were working on, and edit the markup language of the page to correct the quirky formatting issue. This feature was removed. To the credit of Confluence, fixing such issues is less and less necessary, but power users like myself still miss it.
- The permissions models can be confusing at times, even for highly technical people supporting the software. I do not think this is an issue with Confluence, but rather, a caution to administrators who approach permissions from different eco-systems.

Verteilung der Bewertung

Vorteile

With Confluence we have an environment that is very efficient to work in to add new content, very easy to update articles and manage file attachments. The keyboard shortcuts are second to none. It is an absolute pleasure to work in Confluence all day. Setting up spaces for various audiences, including a "personal space" allows me to draft documents privately and then move the document over into a space with an audience. Effectively I can "publish" content to employees with a couple of mouse clicks.

Permissions are very well thought out. The permission scheme is based on spaces, individuals and groups, with flexibility from super-locked-down to wide open on the public internet. It allows control of various actions per person or per group, and affords us maximum utility of the product. People within the business are dreaming up different ways to use it faster than we can implement them.

As with any full-featured system that allows you total control as an administrator, successful use of the product requires that you lay out your business requirements clearly first so that there are no unexpected outcomes. Establishing best practices for content creators within the system is also advisable.

I have used other systems in the past, notably MediaWiki and SharePoint, and while I enjoyed them at the time, Confluence blows everything else out of the water. The control and flexibility is unparalleled and the product has obviously been designed for use in environments where project priorities, staff hierarchies, etc can experience rapid significant change.

I also highly recommend the Atlassian sister product JIRA and add-on JIRA Service Desk for task based work management. It is incredibly useful.

Nachteile

With great power comes great responsibility and great potential to make an absolute mess of things. Deployment of this tool to a large user base would require some serious preparation to establish access schemes, permissions for user groups, best practices for editing and creating new content, and organizing content within the spaces. End user training is critical to cement those rules and establish a culture around using it effectively. I would not recommend deploying this tool in a slapdash hurry (Although, given it's innate flexibility, it would be easier to correct it later with Confluence than some of its competitors!)

Verteilung der Bewertung

Vorteile

Confluence on the cloud is really easy to use. Non-technical people and technical people can easily figure it out. What I love about it is that it kinda of has a social media feel and but has all of the functionality to manage a Lean Agile project. The integration into the Google Suite of tools has brought some other key features like single sign on via Google Accounts which is kind of nice. Anything to battle security fatigue is a plus in my book. The cost is also really affordable for new businesses and start-ups and even personal projects. Why did I not use Confluence to plan my wedding?! Anyways,I digress..this is definitely one of my favorite collaboration tools out there and if you think you need to work together on a team doing MULTIPLE projects, Confluence is a must have.

Nachteile

I feel like every time I go in there, there is a new widget to use. There are so many of them that I don't have time to go through them all to find out if it is worth getting! Atlassian should consider sending "recommender" notifications of tools that might fit our needs based on our usage pattern. I'm not overly concerned about privacy here, but if there is a new widget that I don't know about I'd like at least a small tickler or notification to check it out.

Verteilung der Bewertung