Writing docs

Here's a guest post from technical writer Swapnil Ogale about how he got into writing API documentation.

Information Architecture describes the way we organize data in a website, knowledge base, wiki, software interface, or information technology system. However, as an abstraction of what you actually build, you might encounter challenges when turning that vision into something more tangible.

The value of a knowledge-centered business is more obvious during times of stress. You have already captured what is important for use at a later date. And if you haven’t been capturing knowledge already, it’s never too late to start.

Your team handbook is the manual that you present to all employees, and it contains the essentials of working for your company.

Jidoka means catching errors in the production system at the first chance you get, in order to stop them snowballing into larger problems and defects.

The documentation team at Splunk have written their own book called The Product is Docs. It covers the most important aspects of documentation for software development product teams.