Structure your wiki with templates

Posted on 13 December, 2011 by Andrew Frayling

Following on from my previous post on how you can use labels to add some consistency to your wiki and help with user adoption, another great way to help make those first edits less daunting than staring at a blank wiki page is to use templates .

Templates in Confluence can be used for anything you can think of that might benefit from a uniform structure:

Meeting Notes
Server Inventory
Interview Record Sheet
ITIL Documents
Service Catalogue
Event Planning Checklist
etc.

and can be implemented at the Global level so they are available in every Space in a Confluence installation, or at a Space level so they are only available for pages in a particular Space.

To implement templates at a Space level:

1. Log in to Confluence as a user with Space Administration privileges and navigate to the Space in which you would like to create the template.

2. Select Browse -> Advanced and select Templates from the left hand menu

3. Select Add New Space Template

4. Enter a meaningful Name and Description for your template and enter your template using wiki markup, e.g.

Name: Meeting Notes

Description: Meeting Notes Template

Template:

h3. Date - (Provide Date of Meeting)

h3. Attendees
* Michael Jordan
* Scottie Pippen
* Dennis Rodman
* Ron Harper
* Luc Longely

h3. Agenda
----
h4. Completed Last Week
*
*
*
...

h4. Working on This Week
*
*
*
...

h4. Blockers
*
*
*
...

5. Click Preview to see what your template will look like and refine the wiki markup in preview mode until you are happy with the template.

6. Once you have finished editing your template click Save.

End users can now use the template in the Space in which it was created by either selecting Add -> Page from template from the Add menu in the Space:

or by selecting Add Page from the Dashboard and selecting the Space and Template they wish to use:

The nice thing about pages created from templates in Confluence is they are not hard linked to the template so if you need to add, remove or change anything when you edit the page you can, e.g.:

Creating a Global Template so that it is available in all Spaces in a Confluence installation is pretty much the same process except you need to:

1. Log in as a user with Global Administration privileges.

2. Select Browse -> Confluence Admin

3. Select Global Templates from the left hand Configuration menu:

The remainder of the steps and then actually using the Global template are the same as above for Space templates.

As you may have noticed from the above screenshot you can also Import Templates that other people have created and made available on the Atlassian Puglin Exchange. Some of the provided templates on the Plugin Exchange include template bundles for Software Development and Human Resources.

I hope you found this useful as an introduction to templates, check out the Atlassian website for more information on Confluence Wiki Markup and Working with Templates.

Seed your wiki with labels

Posted on 28 November, 2011 by Andrew Frayling

Labelling and tagging content in wikis is a great way of categorising content to make it easier to find, but sometimes people might need a bit of a nudge to label their content and you may find that people are not using the same labels for the same content, e.g. person A uses “user_adoption”, person B uses “useradoption”, person C uses “user-adoption”, etc. One way of making it easier for people to label content and encouraging people to use standard labels is to “seed” your wiki with the labels you would like people to use so that they appear in auto-complete as soon as a someone starts typing.

To “seed” labels in Confluence:

1. Log in to Confluence and navigate to the Space you would like to “seed”
2. Create a new page called “_labels” and save the page
3. Click the pencil icon to add labels to the page

4. Add add as many labels as you wish – more labels can be added later

5. Select Browse -> Pages and expand the Tree View of the Space

6. Click and drag the “_labels” page above the root of your Space
Now whenever someone adds or edits a page in that Space and adds labels, as soon as they starting typing in the labels dialogue box the auto-complete will match the labels added to the “_labels” page.

Prefixing the page with an underscore (_) is a naming convention that I use to indicate that the page is not “real” content and by moving the page above the root of the Space in the Space hierarchy it stops the page appearing as a child page and cluttering actual content in the Space.

Seeding labels is obviously not bulletproof as it doesn’t force people to add standard labels to their content, but it’s a start and should help with guiding people to use the labels that you would like them to use for certain types of content.

Hope you find this useful and if you have any other hints or tips on encouraging people to label their content I’d love to hear them.

Confluence 4.0 Product Demo

Posted on 21 November, 2011 by Andrew Frayling

Not quite sure how I missed this detailed product demo of Confluence 4.0 wiki covering concepts, potential use cases and how-to’s for creating editing and sharing content.

It’s over an hour long and covers pretty much everything, but below are details of the time intervals so you can jump straight to the content that you’re interested in:

Confluence Overview

What is Confluence – 5m 08s
System Architecture – 5m 23s
How customers use Confluence – 6m 11s
Confluence customers – 7m 12s
Concepts – 7m 29s

Product Demo – 10m 20s
Creating Content

Adding a Page and basic formatting – 14m 0s
Keyboard Shortcuts, Autocomplete and advanced formatting – 18m 44s
Encouraging new user adoption – 22m 45s

Sharing Content

User Management and LDAP – 29m 19s
Granular Permissions scheme – 29m 11s
Confluence Attachments – 34m 42s
Share content instantly – 38m 32s
Single-source publishing – 40m 28s

Discovering Content

Manage your spaces and content – 42m 32s
Create a network to keep up to date with colleagues – 44m 13s
Watch content – 46m 39s
Tag content with labels – 47m 49s
Keep updated via email notifications or RSS – 49m 03s

Discussing Content

Shorten your feedback loop through commenting – 51m 55s
Engage your team and organisation through commenting – 52m 55s
Improve communication while collaboratively authoring content – 53m 50s

Finding Content

Search for content – 55m 20s
Advanced search options – 55m 57s
Browse Confluence’s content indexes – 57m 06s

Plugins & Integrations

Insert, create and search JIRA Issues in Confluence – 58m 27s
Embed OpenSocial Gadgets in Confluence – 1h 00m 58s
Extend and customise Confluence with plugins – 1h 02m 35s

How To Achieve Real Transparency

Posted on 10 October, 2009 by Andrew Frayling

I keep getting told in work that we have this thing called “transparency” and everyone is open and honest and there is clear communication from the top down. Well, sorry to burst your bubble, but we don’t. There are silos, there are Ivory Towers and there are a confusing number of senior management groups with confusing acronyms – SME, ITPB, ITPO, MWE2 ITPB – and people don’t really know these groups’ remits or which group a particular issue should be raised in.

So how do we fix things?

SME (which stands for Senior Management Executive) have taken steps to address some of the issues in sending out regular bulletins of things that have been discussed and actioned at SME meetings. This is a big step forward in addressing some of the confusion around SME, but that’s just one of the groups, what about the others?

So how do we REALLY fix things?

This is where I see E2.0 / Social Business Networking / Call it What You Want making a real difference and adding real value.

We happen to have chosen Lotus Connections as our platform, but you can pretty much substitute any E2.0 platform you like – it’s not about the technology, it’s about the mindshift.

So in our organisation what if:

We had a Community visible to all of Information Services?
We had Wiki defining the remit of each group?
We recorded meeting minutes on the Wiki?
We had Blog post updates from all of the above mentioned groups?
We added project proposals to Files?
We had a Forum for seeding new ideas for projects?
We templated Activities for every task required to move a project through the system?
We used Activities as a light-weight management tool for managing a project that had been approved?
We give it a shot?

Use Case 1

Everyone in Information Services can see projects moving through the system and know at what stage each project is at. It shows that the system works, even if people don’t have projects in the system at the time.

Use Case 2

People understand the remit of each group, what is being discussed where and where they need to raise issues.

Use Case 3

Frank sees that Joe’s project (which Frank didn’t know about) has been rejected, but is important to Frank so Frank contacts Joe to help with getting the project re-submitted.

Use Case 4

Joe sees that Frank’s project (which Joe didn’t know about) has been accepted, but the project impacts on Joe so Joe contacts Frank to ensure project proposal is adjusted to reflect Joe’s team effort.

Use Case 5

Andrew has had a lot of projects rejected, but sees that Mike has had a lot of projects approved. Andrew contacts Mike for advice on how to submit projects.

Use Case 6

Mike has had a lot of projects accepted, but sees that Andrew has had a lot of projects rejected. Some of the projects are of interest to Mike so Mike contacts Andrew to offer advice.

Use Case 7

Bob starts a thread on the Forum to ask if anyone is interested in helping him with a project proposal to reduce storage costs. Andrew responds offering help and invites Paul and Rhys to contribute to the discussion.

Use Case 8

Rebecca is a new employee within Information Services and has never submitted a project proposal before. Rebecca uses the Activity Template for project submissions and has a clear set of steps, tasks, milestones and documents to help her through the process.

Use Case 9

Andrew and Simon have their project approved and use Activities as a light-weight project management tool to share and complete tasks, track milestones and share relevant documents and emails.

The Reality

I know getting the mindshift to do this is not going to be easy, but it has to be worth a shot doesn’t it? We keep talking about business change, so let’s change, let’s do things differently.

The Expansion

This post is specific to Information Services, but I guarantee that the same structures and problems exist with every School or Directorate in Cardiff University – and I bet this solution fits for all of them.

The Conclusion

I honestly think this would work and if you want to see this happen then let me know.

I also accept that I am “politically naive” so if there are stumbling blocks to what I’m proposing then shout – but if you are a CU senior peep then if you shout against this you don’t really believe in transparency

What Am I Not Getting?

Posted on 14 August, 2009 by Andrew Frayling

First blog post in a very long time as I’m normally more of a blog reader than a blog writer, but something has been bugging me lately that I just don’t get – and when I get bugged I normally turn to Twitter, but this needs more than 140 chars

We’re currently in the middle of a programme of work called the Modern Working Environment (MWE) at Cardiff University which is introducing a suite of social networking, collaboration, messaging, business process and integration tools to try and improve the way we work, make people more productive and improve communication and collaboration.

One of the problems we’re facing is that we’ve been getting a lot of feedback recently that people are confused by the number of tools that we’ve released to date as part of MWE and people don’t understand what tool to use for what task. The feedback has even gone as far as suggesting that we should be providing a prescribed matrix of tools versus tasks and that you should always use “tool X” for “task Y” – and this is the bit that’s bugging me as the prescribed approach doesn’t map to any other work or non-work task.

In my mind the chosen tool for any task is based (mainly) on:

* Appropriateness
* Context
* Availability
* Personal Preference
* Group Preference

e.g.

Task – “I need to ask a colleague a question”
Now for this you could visit them at their desk, phone them, email them, send them an instant message or even schedule a meeting, but people instinctively know which is the right tool to use and are easily able to realise when they need to switch tools if they made the wrong choice. E.g. starting what you thought would be a quick instant message exchange that results in one party sending “i’ll phone you”.

Task – “I need to travel somewhere”
Where are you traveling? You could walk, take the bus, take the train, drive, liftshare, cycle, run (if you’re late for a meeting), fly, take a boat, or any combination of these to get to where you need to. Again people know which tool they want to use and will easily switch tools if appropriate, e.g I liftshare or drive to work in the main, but will switch to buses or trains depending on appropriateness and availability of these tools.

Task – “I need to track/report project progress”
What are you reporting? Who are you reporting to? Within INSRV we’re currently tracking and reporting project progress using MS Project, MS Word, MS Powerpoint, MS Excel, Jira, Infra, Confluence and even JPG images. The point is that people know what they want to use, how they want to use it and, again, will switch tools when necessary, e.g. switching from an MS Excel tracked burndown chart to an MS Powerpoint when the information needs to be reported.

Task – “I need to do some DIY”
What are you doing? Knocking down a wall? Building a bookcase? Opening a tin of paint? If you’re opening a tin of paint how many people would use a screwdriver? Is that the designed and advertised use of a screwdriver, no? But is it the most appropriate tool for the job, probably?

Task – “I need to make a reminder note”
What do you use here? Post-it note? Scribble in a notebook? Write on the back of your hand? Add to Notes To Do list? Create a Connections Activity? Record an audio note on your mobile? Add to your Remember The Milk account? People know when and what to use and don’t use the same one tool everytime they carry out this task.

Actually I lied earlier and the real thing that is bugging me are why the above examples are so easy, but people are finding the suite of tools that we’ve released so hard in terms of what to use when?

What makes the above so easy? What makes these MWE tools so hard to understand? What are we doing wrong in not making things easy? What could we do better?

Is it knowledge of how to use the tools? Is it experience of using the tools? Is it that technology will always be horrible and scary to a lot of people?

If you’ve embarked on similar projects have you faced the same challenges? How did you overcome them? Did you overcome them or did your social networking projects die on the vine?

Thanks for reading – my blog posts may get more coherent with a bit more practice at writing