Posted by on October 13, 2011
Consider an action like creating a new “space” in Confluence. Because of the visibility of this action, people want it restricted. Controlled. Managed. So Atlassian makes it only available to people with administrator rights. Which seems ok, until you realise that the workflow of the non-administrator ends up looking like this:
- …doing stuff…
- Decide to create new space
- Attempt to create space, discover that you need an administrator to do it
- Find out who the administrator is
- Ask them to do it
- Wait
And for the administrator it looks like this:
- …doing stuff…
- Receive request to make a new Confluence space.
- Confluence? What? I’m busy configuring a new VM here…oh, fine.
- Go log into Confluence, remember how to create a space
- Get back to work
And probably there will be some miscommunication about exactly what is required. Confluence spaces are a bit of a trivial example. In other instances, you need a lot of information to perform the administrative action, and if there’s a mistake, it again requires the administrator to fix it. Eventually the administrator gets sick of being bothered with such trivia, and the non-administrator gets sick of hassling them, finding an alternative, or living with a misconfigured thing.
For the user: frustration, blockage, helplessness
For the administrator: disruption, menial tasks
Alternative workflow #1: approval only
For the non-administrator:
- …doing stuff
- Decide to create a new Confluence space
- Enter the form, fill out all the details, press Ok.
- (Confluence sends a “Is this ok?” email to administrator)
- Wait
For the administrator:
- …doing stuff
- Receive approval request.
- Since it’s from a fairly trustworthy user, and seems to make sense, click the link.
- Get back to work.
It’s better. The administrator now doesn’t need to know anything about the request. This workflow exists in some kinds of systems (CMSes particularly), but could be a lot more widespread. Ironically, although Jira is a workflow tool, it doesn’t actually have any workflows built in for administration.
For the user: blockage
For the administrator: disruption
Alternative workflow #2: private pending approval
Since creating a space has very limited potential for destruction if it’s hidden, how about this:
For the administrator:
- …doing stuff
- Decide to create Confluence space
- Fill out form
- Press Ok
- (Confluence sends email to administrator, creates space in “private” mode)
- Start working in new space. Do almost anything except collaborate with others in this space.
The benefit is clear: there is now no “waiting” step.
For the administrator, it’s the same as before:
- …doing stuff
- Receive approval request.
- Since it’s from a fairly trustworthy user, and seems to make sense, click the link.
- If more information is required, look at what the user has done in the new space, for a bit of context.
- Get back to work.
There is a mild benefit here, too: the administrator is no longer under as much pressure to immediately approve the thing, and can even see what has been done with the space.
For the user: flow maintained
For the administrator: very mild disruption
Alternative workflow #3: public until reverted
Most users aren’t destructive. And especially in professional environments, virtually all users can be trusted to act in good faith. (Managers strangely predict “chaos” if many users are authorised). So, let them do it:
- Decide to create Confluence space
- Create Confluence space
- Work in new space
For the administrator:
- Receive notification that a space has been created
- If it looks wrong, strange, inappropriate etc, discuss with the user, and possibly remove it.
- Otherwise, keep working
For the user: productivity, responsibility
For the administrator: productivity, trust