Hitchhiker’s Guide to Documentation Tools and Processes

Sketchnote

Sketchnote

Description

No matter if you are on earth or any other planet, it's very likely that one day some Vogon will approach you and ask you the ultimate question: Which tool and process should we use for our documentation? And the worst thing about it: the Vogon could be yourself.

Fortunately, there's a simple answer to that question: DON'T PANIC!

The “small” rest of the answer will be part of this talk. It will guide you through the maze of finding the right documentation tool(s) and the right documentation process(s).

When it comes to documentation tools, you'll find a million out there. At least that's what I encountered several times when I had to decide which tool had to be used in a new documentation project. In this talk, we won't dive into the nitty-gritty of specific tools. We will focus on overarching categories, such as:

  • wikis
  • authoring systems
  • word processors
  • markup code toolchains
  • media editing tools

We'll then map those tool categories with the following types of use:

  • user groups (contributors, consumers, and operators)
  • content tasks (creating, editing, reviewing, and styling)
  • output environments (findability, discoverability, and accessibility)

And last but not least, we'll have a look at different documentation processes and how they fit to our defined tool categories and types of use.

  • Conference: Write the Docs Prague
  • Year: 2021

About the speaker

Lukas Reußner