Atlassian Confluence

Documentation is probably one of my least favourite parts of my role, but I would say in the last 1,5 years that I have been using Confluence it has definitely become a bit easier. I think this is the case because the platform has a very good way of standardizing the writing process and offering a set of different out of the box options in front of you. This definitely makes it easier to start typing, which is always the toughest part. Similarly, it offers you a number of different tools in order to help you release content that is comprehensible and that engages well with your internal audiences. For instance, it makes it pretty easy to embed images and video, which are both formats that perform better with sales users. In addition, it gives you an estimation of how much time will the reader need to go through your material but at the same time it allows you to insert expansions within your text, which save space and make your content more easily readable (it's the first tool that I have seen doing that). However, the biggest advantage by far is how effectively it centralizes the storage of knowledge within any organization (bigger or smaller) by enabling smooth cross-user collaboration and precise linking of different pages and Spaces.

User-friendly document and information setting which can serve as a solid base for resources and internal collaboration.

1. It allows us to create structured hierarchies and spaces for each team. This allows us to keep all of our information in one place and accessible by all, yet keep it organized where the amount of information is not overwhelming. 2. It integrates well with other products like Jira, streamlining some of our prject management capabilities. We can share particular pages externally and securely using third party tools from the marketplace that are easy to configure. 3. Pre-existing templates or templates that we can create ourselves allow for consistency. 4. There are pretty robust access control and permission options available to ensure sensitive information is protected and only shared with those that should have access. 5. A large marketplace with lots of ways to integrate with 3rd party tools or improve upon the functionality of the platform.

Although it is really simple and user-friendly to link pages together and create internal topic clusters, this could also turn to a disadvantage. By nesting many pages under the same topic, things can get really overwhelming pretty easily and users may find the tool more intimidating than useful, which is the exact opposite of what we are trying to achieve. Finding that right balance is as tricky as it is important. Similarly, if you rely on the search bar in order to find what you are looking for, you might be unpleasantly surprised as it is far from being precise yet. Another thing that I wish could be improved is the customization options for a single page. Here Confluence falls a bit short in comparison to a simple word doc because, due to offering a well-structured environment by default, it ends up being much more limiting in terms of design flexibility (e.g. page layout, styling and formatting options, graphics, etc.).

Materials are often outdated and unorganized, primarily due to the need for individual contributors to consistently update this detail based on their personal projects. Having a more intuitive or automated system to generate projects and tasks within the system could help with the organization.

1. Customer Support could be better. Sometimes support is great. Sometimes it is very slow or nonexistent. 2. Pricing could be better. The pricing model assumes very few or a whole lot of users. For a medium-sized company, neither model works well. We have to pay as if we are a big company, with more than 200 users of the platform. When we don't have nearly that many active users. 3. There is a large marketplace. This can be good. But many of the products don't work well or are inconsistent in how they integrate. Atlassian could do better vetting or requiring these 3rd party apps to follow a standard.