documentation-strategy

Documentation Strategy

Planning documentation so engineers can find what they need.

Context

You are planning documentation for a project or team. Multiple levels serve different needs.

Domain Context

• README: First thing people read; quick start
• Architecture: How system is organized; key decisions
• API Docs: How to use services; generated from schema
• Runbooks: How to respond to alerts; specific procedures
• ADR: Why we chose this tech/approach; decisions recorded
• HOWTO: Step-by-step guides; "how do I deploy?"

Instructions

1. README: Installation, basic usage, links to more docs
2. Architecture: System diagram, component responsibilities, data flows
3. API: Schema-driven docs; keep in sync automatically
4. Runbooks: One per alert; decision trees for diagnosis
5. ADR: Decisions recorded; future maintainers understand why
6. Keep Current: Outdated docs are worse than no docs
7. Searchable: Good naming, cross-links, table of contents

Anti-Patterns

• Documentation in people's heads; knowledge walks out
• Scattered docs; team can't find them
• Out-of-date docs; misinformation spreads
• Too much prose; too little examples
• No diagrams; hard to visualize architecture
• No maintenance plan; docs decay

Further Reading

• Diátaxis documentation framework (Procida)
• Google Technical Writing Course
• Write the Docs community