Quality Management SYstem

[Kara-Lucia]

Hi All new here................just wondering if anyone uses Confluence for their Quality Management System and if so what are some tips? also where can i find a list of macros?

[Jimmy Seddon]

Hi @Kara-Lucia

Welcome to the community.  Our company doesn't use confluence (at the moment), but I'm sure you will be able to find others here that are doing something similar to what you are.

As far as a list of macros, I'd start with the examples in the documentation here: https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/writing-user-macros-4485.html

And, you should click on the explore link at the top of the page and start looking in the Confluence collection.

Everyone here is very friendly, so don't hesitate to ask questions!

-Jimmy

[Kara-Lucia]

Thank you for this very helpful :)

Do you know if there is a page for quick links? e.g. when you type in     {inc        its brings up a drop down box where you can include pages etc.

[Andy - PTC Redundant]

@Kara-Lucia Welcome KARA! You're in the right place. 🤘🤓🏆
What is your own personal level with Confluence? Beginner? Experienced? Master?

I use Confluence for Quality Assurance, Release Notes, UAT and so much more. Mainly for the projects though. Not QMS. But overall.... works great!! (As you can see below. I'm happy!)

I would definitely go over to https://marketplace.atlassian.com/ and check out what apps can improve your confluence way of life.

In my experiences with QMS, they are supported by great diagrams and processes.
Make sure everyone knows how to use Gliffy (standard App) and for inspiration check out @John Almeida 's articles here on Community! Got some greeeeeat examples!

And if I know your experience level I can provide some more tips that you might not know.

[Kara-Lucia]

I just started a new job a few months ago and they use Confluence and JIRA.

I would say im a beginner going into intermediate - thats just for the things that I know, I am still unsure as to what these two programmes can offer (JIRA i have a better understanding).

How do you set out your policies, procedures and other controlled documents within confluence? and how is it structured between spaces?

[Hans Leemans]

With my customers we built ISMS systems for ISO27001 and ISO9001 and also for Privacy. The combination of Confluence for knowledge/documentation and JIRA for workflow, tasks en tickets is a great combination. At one customer we are now extending the document management systeem to asset management and incident management.

We created the ISO system in 6 months time for an organization of 250 people. This would not have been possible without the proper tool. The approach is a combination of normative references from ISO that had impact on operational aspects of processes, decisions and monitoring. Most documentation is created while we work on it, collaborating in pages to tweak pages to maximum output quality.

By the way, we did this with only one macro added to the standard set of macro's. We added Google to the macro's as this customer is a Google user.

[Kara-Lucia]

I would be really interested to know how you structured the QMS within Confluence?

Currently we have a space for each department and one for the QMS which includes all policies procedures etc. work instructions are kept within team spaces.  

I find this quite hard to navigate which means it will be a little confusing for staff.

I guess its the standard "you only know what you know" and for what I know about these programmes i understand really well but im sure there are things i havent even come across.

Also ive tried some webinars etc but they are very lengthy and I havent found them very useful.

[Hans Leemans]

Hi Kara-Lucia,

that is not easy to tell in one short reply. But basically what we did is using the ISO standards as the CMS page layout that follows the 9001 and 27001 standards. I created such a layout for privacy as well  though there is a new 27702 standard that can help you with that layout.

Then each team has space that always contains decisions (and policies), processes and monitoring/evaluation. So, when you can make a description of an operational processing activity you know you always has to ask yourself:

- how did I comply with the policies / decisions

- did I follow the process steps

- did I create the evidence that is required in monitoring/evaluation

These normative references can always be clicked and looked into in more detail. 

We also created functional spaces like HR, IT, operations and finance. The trick is to use a clever linking structure and a good defined user interface. We did that by creating our own templates for certain processes or decisions.

On top of that we use JIRA for helpdesk. There ar two moments that can result in changes in the MS. First at the moment you defined the moment to revise it and secondly incidents. That is why we connected incidents closely to our management system.

[Kara-Lucia]

Hi Hans, thank you for your reply.

[Thor]

Hi @Kara-Lucia, probably you already found your solution until now.

If you did not or if you decided to implement your QMS with the ISO 27001 in mind maybe a recently released plugin of one of our partners can help you.

It is called ISMS for Confluence and I would be happy to answer further questions if you want to try it.

[Erica Moss]

@Kara-Lucia Welcome to the Community! We're glad you're here. 😄 Be sure to check out the Confluence product collection, as well as some other spaces like Friday Fun.

[Kara-Lucia]

Hi All, I am after examples and tips for having a QMS within Confluence.

Any help would be welcomed :) 

[James Conway]

Hi Kara-Lucia,

Welcome to the community. Can I take this opportunity to suggest you consider Comala Workflows, which enables you to create and deploy review and approval processes, and maintain control over your content. You may be particularly interested in one of our blogs: https://comalatech.com/the-challenges-and-best-practices-of-developing-software-for-medical-devices/

Please note that I work at Comalatech and there are other Atlassian apps that may also suit your requirements.

Kind regards

James

[Arthur Mack]

We use a combination of Confluence and JIRA for our HSEQ system (and a lot more as well). There are some useful apps we use for Confluence including Comala Document Control, and the very useful QC Documents and QC Read and Understood apps form the same vendor. I would really suggest using JIRA as well as you can track all your issues to completion like CAPA, MOC etc etc.

[Franziska Wende - Communardo]

@Kara-Lucia 

I am inviting you to give our Process Management Suite for Confluence a try. The app is build to create an ISO 9001:2015 compliant quality management system based on Confluence.  Right off the bat at that!

Please get in touch and let me know if you need any support setting the app up and explore its possibilities.

Best, Franziska from Communardo