Living Documentation — Brief History and Evolution of the Concept

Part 1

Overview

In this first article I want to set the scene by outlining what living documentation is, and the types and flows of knowledge in the engineering process. Future articles will cover currently available tooling and options.

So let's get started and cover some basics to all get a common understanding on:

• Definition of Living Documentation
• Forward and reverse engineering
• Maintenance and customer documentation
• Design evolution
• History of living documentation

Definition Of Living Documentation

The key elements of living documentation are:

• Living — it is up to date and reflects the current state of the software
• Documentation — it is a collection of descriptions regarding the requirements, architecture, design, implementation, and operation of the software system.

There is no formal definition covering:

• What it should include
• How it should be formatted
• How it should be structured