Metrics in Confluence

Dave Matthews_bmgq1b

Hello all - 

First off want to say thank you for all of the engagement so far - you all are making me a stronger user! 

I have a question on metrics and charting for data in confluence.

My use case is the following: I have several metrics I capture around corrective actions (CAPAs), some are shown below. I want to replicate these metrics in Confluence, expressly without using any plug-ins or apps. Enabling metrics reporting features will allow me to completely move CAPAs out of their current system. 

 

My current theoretical solution: I plan to capture data within my confluence pages via page properties tables. I then think I need to push the data to a Jira ticket with an appropriate assortment of fields to capture the metrics I want. Then I'll use the Jira reporting features defaults to capture what I can. 

The problem with this solution so far: I am running into issues creating an automation flow from confluence to Jira, especially since I cannot call the page properties data directly within the automation feature in confluence. Am I on the right track? 

James Gamble

Hola Dave,

You’re generally heading in the right direction, but I’d reverse which product is the source of truth. If the end goal is structured CAPA metrics and reporting without Marketplace apps, I’d keep the reportable CAPA data in Jira and use Confluence for the supporting documentation and presentation layer.

Content Properties are useful for creating summary tables across Confluence pages, and the Content Properties Report macro can aggregate those values natively. Atlassian documents that approach here.

The limitation you’ve hit is real, though. Confluence Automation doesn’t currently expose arbitrary values stored inside a Content Properties macro as smart values, so something such as {{page.properties.<property>}} can’t be used to populate Jira fields reliably. That makes Confluence > Content Properties > Automation > Jira a difficult foundation for a reporting system.

Instead, I’d create a CAPA work type in Jira with structured fields for the values you need to report on, such as opened date, completion date, due date, CAPA status, category, owner, and whatever else drives the metrics in your screenshot. You can then use Jira filters and reporting for the calculations, while linking each CAPA to a Confluence page when you need longer investigation notes, evidence, corrective-action documentation, or approvals.

For the Confluence reporting page, you can bring that Jira data back into Confluence using the native Jira Issues and Jira Chart macros. Atlassian documents the Jira Chart macro here.

That would keep the workflow entirely within Atlassian’s native tools and avoid maintaining two copies of the same structured data. For metrics such as “CAPAs completed within 60 days,” you may need an automation-maintained Jira field to record whether the CAPA met that target, depending on exactly how you calculate it, but that automation would be operating on Jira fields rather than trying to extract values from a Confluence macro.

Thanks,

James