How to undo the spaghetti of Confluence

[Colm Maguire]

I have recently arrived to see a Confluence used by a company, that has no overseer, no gatekeepers and no rules about what should be posted, created, etc. Pages are out of date, unfindable and it's really hard to navigate. 

Can we create order from existing Chaos or is it more advisable to start it all over again, by copying pages and trying to create a new structure that is navigable? 

[Gaurav · Accepted solution]

Hello @Colm Maguire 

Welcome to the community!!

In this scenario, I would suggest you start over fresh and migrate only the required data/ pages.

In order to create a well-structured confluence setup, I would recommend starting with an Information Roadmap which would act as a guiding document.

Please accept the answer if this helps.

[Colm Maguire]

Thanks, yes an information road map would be crucial. 

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Accepted solution]

I would mix the two.

You probably have some stuff you want to keep, or revise and re-use.

So, I would create a set of new spaces, set up in the healthy structure you want to use in the future, all with space owners/champions/curators set up.  Then make the old stuff not accessible to anyone other than your curators.  Then ask them to comb through for any good stuff they want to keep and move it into the new spaces in the new structure.

You'll need to train and trust your space owners/champions/curators to not just move everything, emphasising that they should only be taking stuff that is genuinely useful.

[Colm Maguire]

Thank you. Yep Training the space owners and curators and hopefully adding some restrictions would be important, and tags for searching might improve the whole thing ? 

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Tags are very helpful in searches, yes.

[Bill Bailey · Accepted solution]

I have had a similar situation. What I did for that organization was to create spaces for each group within the company, and them have them name a space champion for their group who takes on the role of space admin. Then that space champion needed to work with his team to straighten out the mess, based on some simple guidelines.

I won't say that it fixes the problem entirely, but does tame the Wild West of a haphazard approach.

[Colm Maguire]

I like this idea of a space champion. I feel people don't see the reward for keeping good concise easily findable information. Giving someone a title of Champion would certainly help. Thank you.