Using Confluence in mechanical engineering teams

[Joris Tuit]

Hi everyone,

I’m working on a project to improve collaboration for a company with both software and mechanical engineering teams.

Our software team already uses Confluence successfully, but the mechanical engineers have a different workflow, and we’re exploring how to support them better.

I’d love to hear from anyone who has experience using Confluence in a mechanical engineering environment.

If you're open to a quick chat or have tips to share, I'd really appreciate it!

Thanks a lot!

[Yulia Lenina _AppFox_ · Accepted solution]

Hi @Joris Tuit and welcome to the Community! 

Sounds like a really exciting project you’re working on! It’s great that you’re thinking about how to bring the mechanical engineering team into Confluence too.

Out of curiosity, could you share a bit more about how they currently work? Things like:

• What kinds of documents or information are they managing? (e.g., CAD drawings, specifications, test results, change requests)

• What tools are they using today to manage that information?

• What are the main challenges they’re facing with their current workflows or tools?

• How do they usually collaborate? (e.g., cross-functional meetings, document reviews, approval steps, version control needs)

• Are there formal review or approval processes involved?

• How important is version control or having an audit trail for them?

Depending on what you find, there are some really good ways to tweak Confluence to better fit their needs. There are even apps like Workflows for Confluence that can add structured approvals, status tracking, and support compliance requirements - all within Confluence itself.

Would love to hear more and happy to share some ideas once I know a bit more!

[Joris Tuit]

Hi Yulia,

Thank you for your welcome, and interesting questions!

Are you available for a short call? That would be easiest way to pick this up I believe! :)

Kind regards,

Joris

[Yulia Lenina _AppFox_]

Booked:)

[Piyush Annadate _ACE Pune_ · Accepted solution]

Hello @Joris Tuit ,
Welcome to the Community !!
That's an interesting question. The use of workflows often depends not just on fulfilling a team's immediate process needs, but also on improving and evolving their overall way of working.
When you mention "workflow," are you referring to the internal process steps, or more broadly to project management within Jira?

As your teams may grow in the future, it would be beneficial to create dedicated templates for each engineering sub-team. This ensures that teams can follow a stable process over the long term, and any future process improvements can be easily rolled out to all teams consistently.
Templates should be designed carefully, based on requirement mapping, process refinement, and usability.

For example, you could create a dedicated Jira project for each team, with customized workflows and screens that reflect their specific processes. Of course, we want to avoid disrupting existing workflows. Instead, through careful refinement, you can align different team processes while preserving stability, and build a connected, scalable system for the future.

Here, can yo provide more details about mechanical engineers process agenda? 
Is that for Documentation only?
Or is it for both management and documentation purposes?
Are they having both ITSM and DevOps inline process as well?

[Matteo Gubellini _SoftComply_]

Hello,

You can find Apps on Confluence to have workflows and electronic signatures (we have our own SoftComply Document Manager)

I am a ME myself and when I had to use Confluence (or any other document management system for what it matters), is was only used to upload prints e.g. PDF files) and sometimes 3D models (e.g. .stl) to support manufacturing. The original CAD files were always in the CAD PDM (if you use it). Unlike software were you can use Bitbucket, there is no direct integration between Atlassian tools and CAD systems.

In summary, my experience is to keep to source CAD or eCAD files in their own system, and use Confluence only to store prints/gerbers or other info required for machining/printing.

I have more to pass on if interested, feel free to get in contact with me matteo@softcomply.com

Matteo