Concepts

Key concepts & terminology

A handful of ideas carry the whole app. Every guide assumes them, so it is worth a few minutes here first.

Each document is a Confluence page, with its metadata held in Jira. The Document Control app keeps the two in sync.

Documents, versions, and IDs

Every controlled document has a permanent Document ID (a Jira key such as DOC-718) that never changes, no matter how many times the document is revised. Each revision gets its own version number. Changes are tracked through a separate Document Change ID (such as DC-849). The document table shows both keys, in the DOC and DC columns.

Document ID

Permanent identifier for the document, independent of version. Example: DOC-718.

Version

A numbered revision of a document. Each approved change creates a new version.

Document Change ID

Identifies a specific change made to a document. Example: DC-849.

The metadata behind each document (owner, authors, approvers, approval dates) lives on the Jira work items. You rarely need to look at it, because Document Control surfaces what matters inside Confluence.

Two spaces: Draft and Released

Document Control uses two Confluence spaces:

Draft, where you create documents and work on them before approval.
Released, where approved, read-only documents live. You cannot edit a released document directly; you create a new version instead.

Document statuses

A document moves through a small set of statuses during its life. The approval half of that run is two separate gates, not one.

DRAFTBeing created or edited in the Draft space. Not yet approved.

DOCUMENT APPROVALOut for review with the assigned approvers.

QA APPROVALAwaiting the final QA sign-off before release.

RELEASEDApproved and live in the Released space. Read-only.

REJECTEDAn approver declined, so the document was not released. The authors take it up again and start the approval over.

OBSOLETERetired and archived. No longer visible to standard users.

External files

You can attach Word, Excel, PDF, and other external files to a controlled document and embed them in the Confluence page. The file is then version-controlled with the record rather than living somewhere else.