How to Create and Maintain Technical Documentation for Small to Complex Projects
There are many types of documentation in the software world. Of these, technical documentation is one of the most frequently neglected.
The fast-paced nature of the industry leads to the conception that time spent documenting is time lost developing and delivering features. Over time, a development team’s documentation debt (a type of technical debt) can build to a point where the idea of tackling it becomes daunting. As a project scales and teams experience churn, information can become siloed or even lost. This can then impact the efficiency of the team. On the flip side, well-documented projects are more likely to run smoothly, especially at scale.
In this article, we’ll discuss the importance of technical documentation, why it is often neglected, and the impact it can have on development teams.
Table Of Contents
- Why Projects Need Technical Documentation
- The Risk of Not Having Technical Documentation
- Five Essential Items that Good Technical Documentation Will Include
- Technical Documentation to Speed Up Daily Work
- What to Consider for More Complex and Mature Projects
- Five Technical Documentation Tools for Software Development
- How to Implement Technical Documentation in Your Development Process
- Final Thoughts for Effective Documentation
Why Projects Need Technical Documentation
Common tasks and important concepts explained by the docs don’t require one-on-one conversations for knowledge transfer, making things like onboarding and process management easier. Projects become resilient to unexpected turnover since technical documentation lets knowledge reside within a project, not within the individuals currently working on it. If a team member leaves, typically their knowledge goes with them, but this isn’t the case when things are properly documented. Well-documented projects are also more attractive from an acquisition perspective, and the technical documentation can assist in the associated due diligence process.
The core misconception is that writing software documentation is difficult or time-consuming. When done correctly, it’s straightforward to write and returns multiples on effort in terms of time saved.
The Risk of Not Having Technical Documentation
Every project has a lead or senior developer that knows the ins and outs of the system like no other. These are the people that have been part of the project since the very first line of code, or that have been working on it for a long period of time. They are incredible assets, with the ability to see both the bigger picture as well as the details and help the team navigate the codebase.
