Anthony Pelosi presented techniques for using Confluence to document requirements and specifications for a consumer electronics device. He recommends creating a landing page to organize all relevant content, using templates to ensure consistency across pages, and embedding documents like spreadsheets to allow for simultaneous editing. He also encourages using headers, anchors, and hyperlinks to create a modular structure and make references within documentation clear and organized.

1. Case Study: Using Confluence for
Requirements and Specifications
of a Consumer Electronics Device
Anthony Pelosi, Magellan GPS

2. Who Am I?
 Anthony Pelosi (not related to Nancy that I know of)
 Technical Product Manager of Fitness Products at
Magellan GPS
 Jira & Confluence user for 6 years at 3 companies
 Previous Presenter at SFAUG and Atlassian Summit

3. This Presentation is NOT
 Best Practices
 Introducing Latest Features
 Well Polished
 Attempt to Promote any Product or Service

4. This Presentation IS
 Actual Case Study (may be ugly at times!)
 Showing Simple Techniques in Powerful Ways
 Work in Progress
 Going to Inspire YOU to Present in the Future!

5. Start with a Dream

6. Followed by a Landing Page

7. Tip 1: Landing Page
 If it takes more than a single URL to point someone to
EVERYTHING they need to know for the product, you
did something wrong.
 Organize the Content
 Page Content: Everything on the page itself
 Child Pages: parent-child folder hierarchy
 Related Pages: rules based on labels (like Gmail)

8. Macro: Content by Label
 Use the “Content by Label” Macro to bring together
Pages & Blog Posts from Various Locations.
 Advertise the Macro’s Criteria.

9. Got Files?

10. And Feedback?

11. Tip 2: Files & Feedback
 For ID presentations, we used a single page with File
Attachments and Feedback as Comments.
 Much better than passing back Files and Feedback over
email.
 If someone sent a File over email, I added to the Page,
added a Comment with my Feedback, and Replied to the
email with a link to my Comment.

12. Macro: Attachments
 Use the Attachments Macro to reduce the need to go to
“Tools > Attachments”.
 Set the “Allow Upload” Parameter to True

13. Pages with Same Format?

14. Tip 3. Use Templates
 For Software Features, we created a Page for each
Feature.
 Each Page has Table of Contents, Version History,
Overview, Requirements, Specifications, etc.
 Use Templates to ensure consistency across pages.

15. Macro: Table of Contents
 Start Pages with the Table of Contents Macro.

16. Macro: Version History
 Followed by the Version History Macro to show the most
recent page edits.

17. Requirements in Spreadsheet?

18. No Problem

19. Tip 4: Embed Spreadsheets
 For Software Requirements, we embedded a Google
Spreadsheet exported as an XLS file.
 Why didn’t we choose Confluence Tables?
 Familiar, Faster & Easier to Edit
 Allows for Simultaneous Contributors (Google Doc)
 One file attachment, embed anywhere
 Split up into different Sheets by category/feature

20. Macro: Excel
 Use the Excel Macro to embed an XLS file.
 Specify the file as “page^attachment”.
 Specify the Sheet.

22. Constant References
within Documentation?

23. Tip 5: Link to
Pages and Anchors
 Referencing UI Components, Variables, etc. and other
well defined entities using Text was sloppy
 Referencing with Links forces you to be consistent,
organized, and document in a modular fashion (the
developers will respect you!)
 Use Headers (ex., “h3.”) or Anchor Macro to create
Anchors
 Link to Anchors using “pagename#anchorname”

24. Macro: Anchor
 Use the Anchor Macro when it is not convenient to use a
Header to create an Anchor (for example, to create a
reference to a row in a table)

25. Go With the Flow

26. Tip 6. Flow Charts
 Flow Charts help express written requirements and
specifications visually.

27. Feeling Wired?

28. Tip 7. Wireframes
 Create Wireframes to represent both the Generic
Specifications and Examples of those Specifications.

29. Mercy!
 I could go on for hours, but that’s it for now.
 Simple techniques can be powerful when used in a well
thought out, methodic manner.

30. Questions?

31. Appendix
Just in Case for Q&A!

32. All Requirements
in a Single Sheet?
 You can use Filters to make a Sheet for each feature
using a subset of the Master Sheet.