Can Confluence do simple project mgt?

[Delia Burrage]

I have just started with a start up in the finance/tech industry.  
Previously, I used to manage projects on an excel spreadsheet, where I could easily:

- add, allocate and update tasks, showing:

• which project stream they related to,
• where documents could be found on the shared drive,
• words to describe the status of the item and
• a coloured RAG rating. 
• Being in a spreadsheet, I could see everything in tabular format easily and quickly re-organise in one click using filters so Red items went to the top, or organise by staff member or due date or stream etc etc (it was a small team so I didn't need to send tasks - we could all access the spreadsheet)

- create a gantt chart on a separate worksheet in the same spreadsheet

I'm now using Confluence for note taking and info sharing.  Does it have the capability of doing the task/gantt functionality above or do I need to also use Jira?

[Mirek · Accepted solution]

Hi @Delia Burrage 

Well Confluence for sure would not be Excel, but it provide (or would provide) some features that might help with project management. Depends also how much you would extend it (which addons you would use) you can achieve different results. Adding Jira to it would definitively give you most of the things that you need. 

I suggest to start here and check what it have to offer

https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence/use-cases/project-management

https://www.atlassian.com/blog/confluence/three-ways-confluence-makes-project-management-easy

[Teodora V _Fun Inc_ · Accepted solution]

Hi @Delia Burrage 

Confluence is a great choice for tracking, sharing, and collaborating on work. Multiple built-in macros (like charts, status, Jira issue links, etc) can help you establish a new workflow that matches your preferences. However, for experiences like the Gantt chart, you may want to try a marketplace apps like Ricksoft's Gantt Chart Planner or Easy Gantt or simply browse the categories and different vendors. 

[Delia Burrage]

Thank you for your answer
Do you know whether the Gantt app draws its data from Confluence or would you have to build the whole thing in the separate app?

[Levente Szabo _Midori_ · Accepted solution]

This question comes up from time to time, I suggest you search for related discussions, like this.

In short, you will probably be able to implement simple project management features, but not natively. You are better off selecting a specialized app for the capabilities that are not covered natively or not in good quality, like page status management.

Using Jira in tandem with Confluence is also an option as those are deeply integrated.

[Delia Burrage]

Thank you for your answer