Documentation Framework For Agile Teams

Working software over comprehensive documentation. Yet, the onboarding process requires formal documentation to ramp up people to the team’s culture faster.

Documentation is writing down what we do right. Establish a Documentation framework to promote change across teams. Establish some Documentation Principles so every team can follow up on their efforts. Have a wiki as your central base. Have a document repository where to put your documents, diagrams, etc.

Define a simple outline to follow and assign a point of contact to track execution and progress. Schedule a weekly standing meeting to keep track of the progress along all the stages. Incorrect documentation is worse than missing documentation.

Follow these principles to evolve a body of content helpful for internal and external members of any team. Give developers systems that allow them to make documentation and code changes. Start documentation before development. Accept repetition in the documentation. Structure content to help readers identify and skip concepts they already know. Add examples in the content. Store sources as close as possible to the code they document. Order content to cover prerequisite concepts first. Ensure that all the publications in the body of documentation can answer all questions the user is likely to have.