How SREs Should Document How-To for technical things

I will share a simple framework for documenting SRE work.

This framework will make you prolific in documenting the work you have to do. Those who follow and take action will accrue the benefits of a fast ramp-up for new team members and build a shared memory for the team.

Unfortunately, some of you will not document your work, even when you know great documentation saves time and effort.

“the SRE Way in mind: thoroughness and dedication, belief in the value of preparation and documentation

― Betsy Beyer, Google SRE

Failure is inevitable when you run before walking before crawling.

Most SREs hardly document. Others want to go from zero to 100. This is not possible because

1. When we start, there are many unknowns.
2. With unknowns sequence of tasks is incorrect.
3. Edge cases will trip you.

Four Steps To Ensure You Document Everything

1: Crawl

Always start with a crawl for anything new. You will need to search before knowing how to proceed during a crawl.

2: Walk

It becomes a walkthrough when you crawl a few times and feel confident that you captured everything required to complete the task.

Anyone in the team can follow along with the document, and the work will get done with predictable results.

3: Run

Any task for which 5–10 times walkthrough has been completed can be considered for automation. Once automated, you can run it instead of walking it.

4: Host the docs

Documentation should get hosted on a site as soon as you commit it. No fuss hosting removes the friction usually associated with technical documentation.

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