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But maintaining these references makes it harder to keep your documentation up to date as the code changes. Referencing other sections of the documentation or code instead of repeating them makes your documentation easier to update. Add code snippets (with markup language), libraries, API endpoints, parameters, coding conventions, and additional references to your explanations. 4 – Add references and codeĬontext is everything. On the contrary, it’s the elements that aren’t so straightforward that need the best explanations. We don’t mean that you shouldn’t write advanced technical code documentation. Write in short sentences and keep explanations concise and straightforward. Document what would you need explained if you were picking up this code to work on it for the first time. There’s no need to explain every line of code. When deciding what to include, just keep that in mind.
The purpose of your internal technical documentation is to make your code more understandable. So, write your code documentation with a new dev in mind. Or maybe your company has brought on a remote team to help keep up with growth. You will have moved on to a higher-profile project, and a new dev will come in to work with your old team. Given the ever-moving nature of the high-tech industry, there’s a better than average chance that the next person to work on your code won’t be you. 2 - Write your technical documentation with a new dev in mind The “fresh in your mind” version from today will give you the strongest framework to build on. Do it a step at a time, and you’ll be glad you did. And, of course, there’s no need to finish a feature before you begin writing. Save yourself the time and hassle, and just write it now. Each day that goes by will make it harder for you to remember what you’ve done and why you did it that way. Your mind will never be as clear about what you’ve done as it is right now. It’s time to finish the job by documenting it, but you’ve got 20 items in the backlog… You’ve just written code that adds a much-requested feature to your company’s application. With that in mind, here’s our top 10 list of documentation tips that will help get you started.
Top 10 tips for technical documentation writing So, even though it might be not your first choice to write your documentation today, it will be much more difficult down the road if you don’t. How could you possibly remember what you were thinking when you wrote the code you finished today?
Think about how many projects you will have worked on and how much code you will have written 3 or 6 or 12 months down the road.
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Plus onboarding new team members becomes a laborious process.
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Starting with a basic, working definition of technical documentation: all materials explaining the development and use of a software application. The what and the why of technical documentation It’s the job developers traditionally have hated: code documentation.