Write the docs first

I’m currently pondering a proposal, suggesting to our Dev team that we write the user documentation first, and then use that as the basis of what the product should deliver.

This wouldn’t work for everyone but given that an XP environment encourages little (well, less) documentation than a more traditional ISO style project, then having a draft of the user documentation would be beneficial in many ways:

  1. Early design thoughts are often lost as they are translated into the stories used to develop the functionality. Fleshing these out into more fully formed documentation would better capture that information, and focus it on the user.
  2. Earlier consideration of the “what ifs” will likely come of this, pushing thoughts and discussions out into areas that the documentation needs to cover but which might not be considered as they might not be part of the software.
  3. Focussing on the final product, rather than just the next piece of functionality, should make the big picture easier to see, allowing the developers to better understand WHY they are working on a particular piece of functionality.
  4. Testing/QA can use the documentation to validate the software that is being produced. If it doesn’t match the documentation, it’s wrong.
  5. Anyone coming late to the team can get up to speed much quicker.

I’m still thinking this through, and by pushing on with the documentation, sometimes even striding ahead of development, the technical author can help with the finer details of the implementation, running through some of the scenarios (or edge cases, or “unhappy path trails” depending on your lexicon) before they have been approached by development, blazing a trail for them to follow. After all, we spend a lot of our time considering things the readers of our documentation are likely to ask, if the answers need to come through the software then what better way to develop the solution?

All of this would, of course, be in close consultation with the development team but I think it might be an interesting experiment to try.

Anyone got any thoughts? Pros? Cons??

Update: I posted about this on the TechWR mailing list, and Andrew Warren pointed me at his previous response on this topic. Interesting.

Comments

  1. I love this idea.

    I am working on a version 1.0 project where preliminary design documents were done, however major – undocumented – feature changes have come to pass. This is to be expected in a version 1.0. By interpreting design documents, paying attention to changes in the user interface and using my imagination, I am writing user support materials that are ready at the same time as the developed features. Quality testers tell me that they are learning about the features and how to test them by reading the Help file. If testing doesn’t match the help file, we talk about it and then ask development which way should be right. I am lucky to be working in a great team environment.

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