5 Accelerate Release Documents with Confluence: Boost Quality and Joy!

We want to deploy software changes as soon as they are ready for shipping. In some cases, the urgency of the situation is even greater than the business value lost by the delay.

Consider a clinical lab system. A hotfix is required to ensure the timely completion of lab analyses for cancer patients awaiting treatment based on those results. It is crucial to deploy the hotfix changes swiftly and responsibly, without compromising the accuracy of results for this patient and others.

However, the process of completing release documentation can often take too long. Traceability reports are notoriously time-consuming and challenging. Since release documentation also serves as a quality control step, it cannot be bypassed.

Using the approach and methods outlined here, our customers have reported that they complete their traceability reports six times faster. And their reports are now more accurate than ever. They are using the processes and concepts we have already mentioned, and some more:

1. Manage all ingredients of release documentation in Jira, including requirements, tests, test executions, risks, hazards, and more.

2. For each release document, create a corresponding page in Confluence that aligns precisely with a Quality template. Adhering to approved Quality templates helps mitigate objections and facilitate the adoption of Confluence as a valid platform for authoring release documents.

3. As a new version of the product or system is in progress, utilize the release documents in Confluence to monitor coverage and traceability, ensuring that the data in Jira is complete and correct.

4. When the version is ready, it will only take a few moments to finalize the release documents and send them for approval.

5. ESign the release documents in Confluence. Alternatively, export them and upload to an external document system.

Enterprise Tip: In an enterprise setting, you'll want to use global Confluence templates. The benefit of using global Confluence templates is that they provide each team with a straightforward starting point for creating their release documentation. Furthermore, this method ensures that all pages follow the required structure and comply with the Quality templates across all Confluence Spaces on the site.

Transform quality templates to Confluence templates

Here is how to transfer a Quality Template into a Confluence Template.

The steps are also captured in the videos 📽️ below

1. Start with a traditional template from the Quality System. These most often exist as a Microsoft Word document.

2. Import it into a Confluence page.

3. Transfer the metadata from the Quality Template into Confluence. The easiest way to achieve this is to transfer each metadata in the Quality Document into a Page Property in Confluence. If you are going to eSign the documents inside Confluence, some of the metadata may be managed by the eSign app. For example- in the video I am adding here, I am using the eSign Document Management app. This app will managed the document ID, document version and document type. These will not be added to the page properties- to avoid duplication.

4. Identify which tables contain data that is in Jira and replace them with Snapshot tables -->

   1. This step requires input from product teams, engineering, and testing. It's really at the heart of your efforts to bring your SDLC to Atlassian.

   2. Use one of your products as an example to illustrate what this should look like.

5. Will approvers eSign in Confluence? If so, adjust the page to fit within your document's eSignature flow in Confluence.

6. Optimize the page for export (see more details about it in the section about export, below )

7. Copy this page into a Global Confluence template.

The secret to rapid release documents

It's a known secret that drafting of release documents starts in parallel with the development work. That's always been the case, even when they were authored in Microsoft Word.

However, in Confluence, it's easy to update the release documents frequently. Product managers and testers now have a quick feedback loop to constantly monitor progress toward achieving good coverage.

Test activities are progressing hand in hand with the progress on release documentation. Once testers complete their testing, the test reports and all other release documentation are ready almost instantaneously.

The whole package of release documents is now ready for sign-off.

Getting from release documents to sign-off

Do you require an official sign-off on the release documents before shipping? Did you know that you can sign off Confluence pages in a way that is compatible with CFR 21 Part 11 compliance?

To achieve realignment of the Quality process with the speed of delivering change, more and more teams are shifting their document controls to Confluence. Moving official documents to Confluence is a game-changer, especially if your SDLC is on Atlassian.

Are your controlled documents on another system? Export Pages from Confluence in a perfect format

No matter how you eSign your release documentation, being able to create beautiful PDFs from release documents is always desired. My preferred method for exporting beautiful documents is using the Marketplace App - Scroll PDF Exporter.

There is also a Scroll Word exporter that has very similar features and exports to Word. The advantage of using a PDF exporter is the knowledge that the PDF is less likely to be manually modified after exporting from Confluence. It is more reliable as a reflection of what you have in Confluence. Exporting to PDF instead of Word helps cement Confluence as the source of truth.

To prepare for the release of beautiful documents, it's a good idea to prepare the Scroll export template in advance. The scroll template will help anyone on your team export standardized, beautiful release documents. Here are the key features provided by the Scroll Template:

1. Standard layout of the header and footer on each page of your export. For example, ensure that the document ID, official version, and date are featured on each page. Sure- also the logo of your company.

2. Standard fonts and sizes.

3. Standard existence (or not) of a table of contents on exporter pages.

4. Predefined styles for exceptional cases- like wider tables that require a more condensed export to fit well on one page width. Often, traceability tables can become wide, and it's good to have a more compact layout to print them.

Beyond the export template, Scroll also provides a way to optimise each specific page. What do I mean by optimization? I refer to any page-specific instruction to the exporter engine, for example:

1. Transfer from portrait to landscape layout. This is a lifesaver in case of wide tables. You can even instruct the exporter to use a condensed styling that works better with those wide tables.

2. Insert page breaks in specific locations on the page. These page breaks only impact the export (not how the page looks in the browser)

3. Exclude specific sections from the export. For example, if your page includes instruction notes, you should exclude them from the PDF.

From bureaucracy to joy

Using Confluence for release documents transforms a tedious bureaucratic chore into a tool that supports actual work and make your team faster. When done correctly, it enhances both quality and joy.

I hope this article has inspired you with valuable ideas to effectively implement these changes for your team.