What is documentation, and how do businesses create it?

What is documentation?

Types of documentation

• Technical: Includes detailed information about a product’s design and is typically used internally by the development/engineering team. It may include source code, troubleshooting guides, and schematics. Some documentation may be suited to technical support or customers experiencing technical issues.
  
  
• User: Tends to be external and customer-facing items, including user manuals, quick start guides, FAQs and tutorials.
  
  
• Project: This records the planning, execution, and results of a project to ensure transparency and accountability. It also helps teams stay aligned and track progress with project plans, reports, schedules, and documentation of a project’s scope.
  
  
• Legal: This contains essential information, such as contracts, agreements, and licences with customers and suppliers.
  
  
• Business Process: This contains essential information, such as contracts, agreements, and licences with customers and suppliers.
  
  
• Compliance: Crucial for any business wanting to stay on the right side of legislation, this includes details of policies, procedures, and audit reports to show adherence to standards.
  
  
• Training: This provides training materials for employees or users, and includes training manuals, videos, and interactive modules for skill development. It’s most often used during onboarding.

How does documentation differ from a knowledge base?

Why is documentation essential?

• It encourages employees/customers to access information independently, which improves self-sufficiency and reduces the strain on support teams.
• It promotes quality control by setting clear standards and procedures, ensuring that teams meet quality benchmarks.
• It helps organisations retain and maintain knowledge long after employees leave.

How to write good documentation in 5 steps

1. Understand the gaps in your organisation, e.g. a need to document more processes or procedures to have clarity on what you hope to achieve with your documentation.
   
   
2. Select the right technology. Documentation tools and platforms are here to help you create and manage your documentation. The right knowledge management systems aren’t just repositories; they ensure that the knowledge you store is collaborative and ever-adapting. Ensure you use technology that is designed to protect you against data loss, with plans for disaster recovery and solid admin controls. Confluence is a fantastic platform for storing documentation.
   
   
3. Establish documentation standards. You need guidelines and frameworks for teams to work with, from templates to naming conventions and storage rules for the perfect document hierarchy. Lay the foundations for easy access and maintenance. Ensure version control and tracked changes are in place.
   
   
4. Create and launch. Before you launch, work with colleagues to contribute and review content. Be sure to include senior stakeholders, too.
   
   
5. Review and improve. How is the documentation being received and used? Do you need to go back and create a more intuitive navigation structure or hierarchy? Encourage feedback from readers to understand how useful your documentation really is, and make improvements frequently.