Best practice structuring: What for to create an entire Space? Sub-pages vs. Spaces

Collaboration Confluence
#1

Hi there,

I am looking for suggestions and best practices when it comes to spaces in Confluence.

I am not quite sure when it is best to create a new space? Often just sub-pages are created in other pages, resulting in huge not comprehensible spaces. Furthermore we do not allow the normal confluence-user to create spaces - only admins are allowed to do so.

I realized that it can be quite comfortable to have more smaller spaces instead of only a few huge spaces.
Spaces could be categorized and individual users could “feel home” in a few different spaces depending on which projects and tasks they are working on.

In our situation right now it feels that everyone just knows his/her “home space”, which is not the personal space, but just a sub-page on a space in which he/she works most of the time.

We do not really use restricted pages/spaces that much as we try to keep everything very open - however it turns out that many add-ons allow some configuration on a space level.

What are your experiences, best-practices, and suggestions on this topic?

best
Markus

#2

This is a very good question. There are a lot of possible and good answers and you can argue, that the right solution is more of a style than a discrete description. But I am trying never the less:

  • Try to create as little spaces as possible.
  • Having one central big space open for everyone to view, edit and comment may feel awkward for a lot of companies but is the right way to go. Try it, even if you are suspicious.
  • If you need rights restricted constantly and systematically this is a strong sign for a separate space. Doing this in a space tree is always a hassle and adding unnecessary complexity.
  • I advocate for letting everyone create spaces but heavily question spaces that can be merge. It is extra work though.
  • It is common, that users create separate spaces for just about every topic. If you do not need to be space admin or have any rights management reason, the space could probably be dissolved. If you have more than 100 pages (or pick a number that suits your company), that justifies another space.

Does this help you?

1 Like
#3

@mraab: There is also a very long German answer to a very similar question from @bhambach here:

1 Like
#4

Thanks a lot - I did not recognize before that there is a German and English forum.

#5

Thanks a lot @mseibert!

Just to be sure and to avoid any misunderstanding.
Do you mean…

  1. “as few spaces” as possible as in “so wenige Bereiche wie möglich” or --> create only a few very large spaces for the entire organization
  2. “as little/small spaces” as possible as in “so kleine Bereiche wie möglich” --> following the credo divide and conquer and have many, many small spaces.

We do have large spaces, but I feel (and am not sure) that many small spaces are the better solution. Of course a corporate-wide space for central topics should always exist.

Would you suggest working with space templates in this case? On the one hand it is possible to offer actual space templates that can be copied (e.g., categorize the Space as “template”), or on the other hand I have heard about add-ons that allow to create spaces including