Challenges faced when updating Confluence

Confluence is. a great tool, but, like anything, over time it will wear down. Pages will get stale, content won’t be updated, and some information that should be there is just missing. Ideally organizations counter this by performing regular reviews of important or high-priority information in Confluence every 6-12 months. This helps ensure the tool remains useful and doesn’t get too cluttered.

Much more commonly, however, groups neglect to update Confluence, resulting in spaces and pages that are less than useful. Eventually someone will decide they need to do something about it - and run into challenges and opposition.

Below are several challenges I’ve come across (but are by no means ALL the challenges out there!), as well as some ways to get around them.

Challenge #1 - What is Confluence?

Someone not knowing what Confluence is, or realizing they have access to it, is more common than you think. On the one hand this is a bit crazy since organizations pay good money to utilize it, but on the other hand it’s entirely understandable as many times knowledge management isn’t at the forefront of anyone’s mind.

Overcoming this challenge can be hard as you’re working with someone who has zero understanding of the usefulness of Confluence. Here, focus on some of the following to help overcome it:

1. Education - Start with the basics. What challenges can Confluence help your organization solve? How is it already being used? What efficiencies are gained from it?

2. Demonstrate - I find it handy to have a demonstration space setup in advance so I can walk them through what a good setup looks like. This lets them get hands on to see what it’s like.

Challenge #2 - Where to begin?

Many times I find it challenging to pick a single point to begin - after all there can be dozens or hundreds of spaces in an instance, so choosing one to start improving can be hard.Even within a space it can be challenging to pick a single area to improve.

Taking an educated guess is a great way to overcome this challenge. Ask yourself the following questions to help target an area to start with:

1. Are there specific areas where most workers are required to go or would find information? Something like a company hub / employee central that houses general information can be an easy target.

2. Are there any areas that have low traffic? Low-traffic areas can be a good target for improvement, but you’ll have to determine if they’re worth it.

3. Is anyone screaming about it? You may be getting complaints that XYZ area isn’t up to speed - this makes this step easy, just go there and look a round!

Challenge #3 - "We don't have the resources"

Organizations have a lot of priorities, and I’ve never met one that put improving Confluence up near that top… this makes this objection incredibly common when you’ve identified some work that could be done. Typically I’ve found that more budget isn’t needed, making this a matter of getting some person-hours to help out. Typically I can tackle it myself, but sometimes getting another expert in is needed. 

Here’s a few ways you can approach this one:

1. Determine the minimal amount of work needed - Take your plan and boil it down to just the necessary changes or updates. Challenge yourself to make Confluence more useful while minimizing your ask. This is a good exercise in general, but will help you focus on the important parts.

2. Realistically estimate the work - Take some time to understand exactly how much time or money it will take to do what you’re planning. This won’t necessarily overcome this objection, but it will demonstrate you’ve done your homework, and set you up for the next item. This will also help you figure out what other folks you need to help you, and how much of their time you need.

3. Can you do it on your own - Many times I’ve found the updates I see are things I can do in my “spare” time at work. Sure, it will take longer since it’s just me dedicating a few hours here and there, but by taking on the core load yourself, you help deflate this objection.

Challenge #4 - Not a priority / “This isn’t important”

Another very common objection is that it’s not a priority for your organization. I completely understand this, as there’s a lot going on… however, as you’re likely aware, having a Confluence space that isn’t organized is almost worse than not having one at all.

For me, this challenge is best overcome by using numbers and gathering feedback. These both give you things to point at when making your case, helping show that it should be a priority.

1. Metrics - Pull whatever numbers you can on how much Confluence is utilized. How many times are pages with critical information accessed? How frequently are they updated? Are they even being used at all?

2. Feedback - Solicit, compile and analyze feedback from other people in your org about Confluence. What frustrates them? How much time do they waste struggling to find information? 

Challenge #5 - "It’s always been this way / It's not broken"

Organizational inertia can be very hard to overcome… folks get used to things being a certain way and become incredibly resistant to changing anything about it. That, however, doesn’t mean that we can’t do better.  Fortunately the way to overcome this is the same as Challenge #4 - gather information about the pain that is currently being experienced and quantify it.

Challenge #6 - "XYZ software does that"

Organizations have many, many tools (one place I worked had over 200!). This makes it highly likely there is another, similar tool, that does (at least part of) what Confluence does. Unfortunately this will result in folks pointing to the other software and saying “we don’t need to improve Confluence”.

My approach with this objection is education. Take time to clearly lay out the intended use of Confluence as the source of truth for information (or at least an index pointing the way). Reinforce that while information doesn’t have to live in Confluence, people should be using it as a first point of contact while looking for information.

Gathering feedback is also a good approach - especially if people are confused about where to go to get information or which system to use.

Challenge #7 - Resistance to archiving/deleting / No alignment on how to manage old content

This one pops up once you get your project started and have identified content that has to be retired. Content that has outlived its usefulness should be either archived or deleted as it just clutters things up for everyone else.

This pushback could be the result of a few things, so your approach will differ:

1. If they’re unfamiliar with Confluence - They may just not know you can safely archive items and still find them. If this is the case, educate them on how the feature works. Give them a live demonstration of how easy it is to archive, view, and recover, that information to help them understand how easy it is.

2. They think it’s still useful - Sometimes they’ll think that the information is still needed. This is where your metrics and feedback come in handy. In many cases you can show them that it hasn’t been viewed or updated in a period of time, or that only a small number of people use it. Getting hard data - or anecdotal data - can help them see that the content should be retired.

Challenge #8 - Resistance to using the tool

This is a very common challenge with Confluence in general. Many times people don’t want to use it at all, or only in a limited way. Overcoming this can be particularly challenging, especially if they’ve already made up their mind about it

Depending on how severe, this can take time to overcome, and is mainly education-focused. Take time to understand why they don’t want to use the tool, then tailor your response accordingly.

Challenge #9 - Disagreement on design principles

For me this is a less-common objection, but one that still does come up. Sometimes a group will have a particular idea of how things should be set up or look, which can clash with another group’s ideas. Taking time to understand each group’s desire is important here, as you’ll want to b e sure you understand their disagreement. 

From there, you may need to educate them on what is possible (e.g. you may not be able to do XYZ idea given constraints), or mediate a compromise with another path.