Developing a Knowledge Management Solution in Confluence
Asked by Doug_Freehling:

We are looking for any best practices or recommendations around utilizing Confluence as a Knowledge Management solution for a common library of policies, procedures, templates, etc..

We have been using Knowledge Tree which was acquired and is being sunset.

We have been using Confluence for several years but have not put a rigid structure in place like is needed for a solid KM solution. Wanting to know if there are organizations and people willing to share. Not finding a lot of guidance in the Online Documentation.


Answers:
author: Libby Healy
body: Hi Doug,

It is always disheartening when a tool you know and are established with is sunset. And you are correct that, by design, Confluence is not rigidly structured. BUT- this means that you can architect a solution that is right for you.

I am not sure what your process is right now, but my recommendation would be that instead of trying to rebuild what you have in Knowledge Tree take this time to redefine what you want out of your KB. Ask your stakeholders how they want to interact with knowledge. Create user stories and technical requirements. Do some journey mapping. And then start to create your solution.

I use Comala Document Manager as well as Comala Publishing (found on the [Atlassian Marketplace](https://marketplace.atlassian.com/search?query=comala)) to add workflows and manage publishing permissions to support my content management methodology. For instance, I can create a custom document template in Confluence and then manage the entire life-cycle of that document (from editing permissions and approval workflows, document status and visibility, and finally publishing and archiving) using Comala.

Hope this is helpful!


author: Mike Rink
body: Hi [@jerry.bokser](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/3757151) ,

That use case is precisely what influenced us to develop our Read Confirmations feature. You can assign Confluence users to read pages, and then they will be prompted to confirm that they have read them. "Reads" can be tracked to ensure you're getting the responses you need, and due dates can be assigned to the confirmation. You can learn more in our product documentation: <https://wiki.comalatech.com/display/CDML/Read+Confirmation>

Let me know if I can answer any follow-up questions.


author: jerry.bokser
body: [@Mike Rink](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/306174)

Has Comalatech had a similar Use case?


author: jerry.bokser
body: Hi,

We use Confluence primarily for documenting our project development efforts.

We are looking to implement a PCI (Payment Card Industry) certification which requires our developers to review and attest they have read various docs and/or Confluence pages.

We would then need to track/attest to our compliance team that the dev. team individual members completed the task.

Is this something Comalatech can manage? 1. workflow to approve/certify completion of task (e..g, reading a policy doc) and 2. Summary stats of results for the team.


author: Mike Rink
body: [@Debra Graham](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/1288054) , just following up on [@Daryl Karan](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/902719)'s comment above, I'd also encourage you to reach out to us to give your feedback. We certainly want to try and turn those 5's into 10's for you and our other users. Please do send an email to support@comalatech.com and we can set up a call to get your feedback.

Thanks,  
Mike Rink  
Marketing Manager  
Comalatech


author: Daryl Karan
body: Hi Debra,

We're sorry to hear that you've given a marginal rating for both our Documentation and experience with us.

Can you please explain what we've missed on for both items? I completely understand if you don't want to bring this up in an open form, feel free to open a ticket with support@comalatech.com and address the ticket to me and it will come my way.

Alternatively if you'd rather jump on a quick call to discuss the items, feel free to book a meeting with me at a time that works best for your schedule [HERE](https://daryl-comalatech.youcanbook.me). Once you've booked a time, I will send over a Zoom meeting invite.

I look forward to hearing from you to help resolve these issues.

Best Regards,   
Daryl


author: Debra Graham
body: I'd rate my experience with Comala as a 5 out of 10 and their documentation as a 5 out of 10. We use both Comala Publishing and Comala Documentation Management (used to be called Workflow).


author: Libby Healy
body: I am quite happy with Comala. I will say 9 out of 10 b/c there is always room to improve.

I especially like that while Comala has several out of the box solutions, there is the option to author my own solutions as well. This gives me SO much flexibility in what I create. There are also a few handy macros added to my Confluence library with Comala as well as some new reporting options.

Additionally, their customer service is prompt and helpful.


author: Doug_Freehling
body: Thanks for that reply. So on a scale of 1-10 how happy are you with the Comala solutions. Any major limitations or frustrations.

Totally agree with your recommended approach and we are trying to do that as much as possible.


Tags: confluence-server

server