A process is easier to follow when the flow sits on the SOP, and a step can open the page it names. When the flow is a picture in another file, the step and the title can fall out of step with that page.
What is a flow off the page
You keep the procedure in Confluence, and the process flow is an exported picture. A box on a printed copy in the lab shows a step, and that box cannot open the work instruction. The words in the box can also fall behind the title of the page they were meant to name.
Why is an old flow a risk
A step moves to another work instruction, and the SOP gets a new revision. The picture stays as it was, so the flow can still show an old title. An auditor asks which flow was in use with this revision, and you are matching a file to the page by hand.
How to add the flow on the page
QC Documents for Confluence Cloud includes the QC - Mermaid Diagram macro. You paste a short description, and the macro draws the flow on the page. The drawing belongs to that revision. Flowchart is one of the types the macro accepts. The same macro can also draw an organogram, a generic traceability table such as a V diagram, and other diagrams. For those, you paste a different description. To use the macro, you must be familiar with Mermaid diagram syntax:
https://mermaid.ai/open-source/intro/syntax-reference.html
- Open the page, for example, the SOP.
- Click Edit.
- In the page, type
/qc mermaid. - Paste the diagram text into Mermaid source.
- Optionally, choose the theme you want
- Click Save, then publish the page.
Paste this into Mermaid source. LR draws the flow from left to right. A line that starts with %% is a note, and it is not drawn. The first note is how you link a page. Write the box as A["{{page:123456789}}"], and replace 123456789 with the Confluence page ID, the number in that page's URL. The box shows that page's title, and it opens the page when someone clicks it.
%% Link a page by id: A["{{page:123456789}}"]
%% The box shows that page's title and opens the page when clicked.
flowchart LR
A[Start] --> B{Decision}
B -->|Yes| C[Done]
B -->|No| D[Retry]
In this flow, Start, Decision, Done, and Retry are plain labels. To make Done open a work instruction, change that box to C["{{page:123456789}}"] and use the real page ID. Do the same for any other step that should show a page title and open that page.
Give QC Documents a try
Start your free trial today by installing the QC Documents for Confluence Cloud directly from the Atlassian Marketplace.
