Do You Have a Documentation Strategy?
What is a documentation strategy, and why do companies need it?
A documentation strategy is a plan according to which tech writers create, publish, and update docs. A well-thought-out documentation strategy helps to prepare high-quality documentation and update it timely, and, of course, coordinate the actions of all team members involved in this process. It is especially important when a company has several products and different tech writers prepare different sets of documents. Surely, every company has a style guide, and each tech writer is aimed at solving customers’ problems. But will these separate manuals help users get a bigger and unified picture, or will they remain just separate manuals? This is the problem a detailed documentation strategy solves: it helps to create an overall system of documentation that is updated when the right time comes.
Here are the steps a documentation strategy should include:
- Define your audience and their needs. A product may have several types of users: internal and external users, for example; customers and support team members, etc. They should have different manuals. They need different types of information: members of support team should know the product better and deeper than customers. And, finally, there can be manuals that contain sensitive information and are not meant for public use.
- Define the format of technical documentation. Today there are a lot of options: printed manuals, online documentation (is most popular), video instructions, etc. You need to choose the most convenient format for your audience. And pay attention to the fact that different formats require different skills from your team. For example, creating video instructions is something totally different from creating online manuals. And, of course, it will take more effort to update a video than to update an online manual. In most cases, you’ll need to create a new video.
- Define resources and the scope of work. Some companies need just one technical writer, others need a team; sometimes, even a team is not enough, and companies hire external experts. That’s why it is vital to estimate your resources at the very beginning to cope with a project.
- Define tools and services. Most companies already have tools and services that they use every day. As a rule, these are technical writing tools and project management tools. But special needs and requirements may lead to using new tools: for example, screencast tools, video-making tools, or wireframe tools.
- Define writers and reviewers. In a team, it should be clear who does what. If a task is not assigned to anyone, the chances are high that no one will start working on it.
- Define priorities. Some sections should be prepared first, others can be prepared later on. What sections have the highest priority?
- Define milestones and deadlines. When should you check the results, and when should the project be ready and published?
- Define maintenance schedule. Many products are highly complex today: new versions are created, new features are added. User manuals should always contain relevant information. As a rule, each company has a strategy for product development. Technical writers should keep that in mind. Their task is to prepare documentation before release.
Of course, these steps may differ depending on your project and its special goals. But the main idea of steps and phases will remain the same.
Stay safe and write awesome documentation!
