Since our team is moving to JIRA for tracking bugs and enhancements, and we’re creating a new customer portal, possibly using Confluence, I’ve been thinking about ways to make our process for release notes smoother and more efficient.

Currently, we write up Word documents for each issue, and then compile the documents into a single document once we know which features are being added to the release. It’s a process that’s cumbersome and prone to error.

Instead, I’d like the team to document the issues in JIRA. Then we can pull the documentation from JIRA into a Confluence page, and use a report to find which corrections and enhancements have been included in the release.

That means getting the two applications to work together. I’ve upgraded Confluence to version 3.5, so I think this will be easy, but let’s see.

First I need to link the two applications together.

[Confluence 3.5, JIRA 4.3]

1. Add an application link in JIRA

1. In JIRA, from the Dashboard, click Administration.
2. Select JIRA Administration.
3. Click Application Links.
4. Click Add Application Link.
5. Follow the instructions in the wizard.

2. Link a JIRA project to a Confluence space

1. In JIRA, from the Dashboard, click Administration.
2. Select the project.
3. Click Configure Application Links.
4. Click Add Link.
5. Select Confluence.
6. Select the space.

I’ve already created an issue in JIRA, so now I want to pull that issue into my Confluence page.

3. Display a JIRA issue on a Confluence page

1. In Confluence, find the page where you want to add the JIRA issue.
2. Click Edit.
3. Click the Insert JIRA Issue icon.
4. Select the issue.
5. Click Insert.

Easy! But not exactly what I want.

What I want is a list of all the enhancements and corrections for a particular release. And I want our clients to see only the documentation about what’s new or updated, not the full history of each issue.

More to come next week…

Update: See part 2.

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Photo via Flickr user Heike Quosdorf