5 ways to make documentation less daunting

Throughout my experiences across various companies, irrespective of the industry, I frequently face situations where I am assigned tasks without prior knowledge and encounter a shortage of documentation. The typical solution involves scheduling time with a colleague to guide me through the process to help decipher the unfamiliar aspects. However, this method not only uses up my time but also places an unnecessary burden on my colleagues.

I’ve been on both sides of this scenario and I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s faced this situation before. It seems like a simple fix right? Just document your work. But this is a lot easier said than done, and even I can be guilty of not documenting my work at times for various reasons. Nevertheless, I have seen first-hand that it is possible to mitigate ,or at the very least, reduce the occurrence of these scenarios by focussing more on optimising the process of documentation for you and your team.

Here are a few ways that proved effective in my experience:

Centralised documentation repository

A primary reason why many people shy away from documentation is the absence of a centralised, team-specific location or the presence of multiple tools with inadequate upkeep. Start by establishing a dedicated area for documentation that is easily accessible by all team members. This could be a shared drive, a version-controlled repository, or a dedicated section on a collaboration platform like Google Docs, Confluence or Microsoft OneNote. I recommend leveraging collaborative tools because they offer real-time collaboration (allowing multiple users to edit simultaneously) and version tracking, ensuring a transparent version history and alignment of documentation with the current state of projects. Establishing such a centralized location is typically the first step towards enhancing documentation, laying a solid foundation for the team to work from.

Template Creation

The structure and formatting aspect of documentation can be the most time-consuming aspect that often puts people off even starting it. Figuring out what to include and what order to add the details can be overwhelming. Developing a simple standardised template for documentation gives a guideline for you and the team to follow, making this process a lot more streamlined.

Try to keep the template simple and concise, encompassing the most relevant details. No one likes reading thick manuals with paragraphs of text, no matter how useful the content is. Creating sections for each topic area within the template will make it more convenient for the person writing their documentation as well as making it easier for team members to locate specific information within the document.

Wiki-style Documentation System

This aspect focuses on optimizing the usability of documentation. The more user-friendly the documentation, the greater the likelihood that people will maintain and consistently contribute to it.

Rather than writing a big slab of information on a page, use wiki-style documentation to slice your team documentation into manageable chunks. This could be done by implementing a tagging or categorisation system based on topic areas. For example, you could have a section dedicated to long-term projects and another for short-term or frequently occurring ad-hoc projects. It might be beneficial to have distinct templates for different content types within each section, but be cautious not to overly complicate the process, as excessive complexity can itself be discouraging.

Documentation Ownership

Assign ownership of different sections or aspects of the documentation to team members. This distribution of responsibilities lessens the workload for the entire team while instilling a sense of accountability in each member. It ensures that someone is responsible for the accuracy, completeness, and maintenance of a particular section of the documentation, which is dramatically improves the overall quality of the documentation.

With clear ownership, team members know whom to contact for questions, updates, or clarifications regarding specific parts of the documentation. This reduces confusion and streamlines communication within the team. In dynamic projects or teams, consider rotating documentation ownership periodically as it helps cross-train team members and ensures that multiple individuals are familiar with different aspects of the project.

Documentation Reviews

As with any habit, I’ve often observed that documentation tends to be neglected over time. There is always the initial team motivation hit which pushes people to start documenting. But as time elapses, there is a noticeable decline and one day you’re left reading an outdated crucial documentation piece that was last updated 2 years ago.

To avoid this, schedule sessions with your team to periodically review your documentation. This could be a collaborative sessions, perhaps once every quarter, where team members discuss and validate the accuracy and completeness of the documentation. This not only serves as a reminder for everyone to maintain their documentation but also functions as a feedback mechanism for team members to propose improvements to the process or identify discrepancies in the documentation. While this may seem like overkill, these scheduled reviews, like all habits, ensure consistency over time.

I’m sure there are plenty other ways to streamline your documentation process, but in my experience, I believe these are the most effective ways to get started and create a collaborative documentation process that keeps the entire team informed and aligned. Yes, it involves a bit more time upfront, but the investment is undoubtedly worthwhile for the time saved in the long run.