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- Created by Robert Reiner, last modified on 22. Oct 2018
Practices to collaborate on agile documentation.
List of Practices
The practices follow the documentation principles to establish and maintain an effective communication.
Practices typically have areas where they are best applied, have pros and cons. Therefore they are presented in a pattern form.
| # | Name | Short Description | Principles |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Agile Documentation | A document is considered to follow the agile principle if it is valuable, essential, and created or updated just-in-time. A documentation is created and maintained in an agile way, if all its documents follow this practice. | |
| 2 | Categorize | Organize content by keywords. | |
| 3 | Describe Content | To make it easier for readers to determine the relevance of a document, there should be short description for each document. | |
| 4 | Document State | To set the expectation right it is useful to communicate the state of each document to the collaborating authors and the readers. | |
| 5 | Dynamic Links | Build a navigation to related and associated information by the use of document properties and dynamic linking. | Open Closed Principle |
| 6 | Employ a Style Guide | All publishing organizations define a style guide for their published information. Such a guide supports teams to write in a similar tone, making it easier for readers to digest the information. | |
| 7 | Employ Delegate Documents | Delegate documents make it easier to reuse content from existing documents as a whole. | |
| 8 | Employ Impersonator Documents | Impersonator documents make it easier to reuse structure with different content. | DRY Principle |
| 9 | Favor flat Hierarchies | Organize information physically in flat hierarchies. Add views to put these documents in different contexts. | Stable Dependencies Principle |
| 10 | Focus on Content | Make it easy for knowledge workers to focus on content and remove the need to define the document structure and formatting on a ad-hoc basis. | Separation of Concerns |
| 11 | Frequency of Change | Consider content by the frequency of change. Group content in information sets that change in the same frequency. The most important category for changes is the record, which implies no change. | |
| 12 | Keep a Journal | In order to take personal notes on one's own work and to reflect upon what has to be done or has been done, keep a journal. The information in the journal should be shareable at least with all team members. | |
| 13 | Know your Mission | Use charters to define the purpose and benefit of each document. State the expectation of the stakeholders involved. | |
| 14 | Last responsible Moment | Defer a decision to the last responsible moment is also a risk-reducing technique for writing documentation. | YAGNI Principle |
| 15 | Maintain a Glossary | To enforce a common understanding of the domain, a glossary should define the terms important for the project. This also supports the ubiquitous language and makes sure nobody is left behind. | |
| 16 | Make Reader feel Home | Communicate in a way expected by the reader. | Principle of least Astonishment |
| 17 | No Noise | Do not render text to the reader that has no information value. | |
| 18 | Physical Location | Store information physically only by properties that are invariant. | |
| 19 | Privacy, please | Separate documents and records with different level of privacy. | Separation of Concerns |
| 20 | Provide multiple Views | Provide views on your topic-based documentation. | DRY Principle |
| 21 | Separate Release Cycles | The product and the documentation of the product should be in different release cycles. | |
| 22 | Single Point of Access | Users require a single point of access to all information relevant for a project. | Principle of least Astonishment |
| 23 | Single Sourcing | Reduce redundancy by having one source of truth for each information. This way the written information is more easily reusable in other documents and - which is even more important - it is referenceable. Single sourcing demands automation. | |
| 24 | Standard Layout | A standard layout makes it easier for new members of a team to find information. A standard layout is project independent and is typically defined by an organisation. | |
| 25 | Tell me, I'll summarize | A simple technique to enforce common understanding and knowledge distribution on important topics. | |
| 26 | Use Templates | Define a basic structure for all artifacts of a given type. Readers will have an easier job on finding and learning about the information in your documentation. | |
| 27 | Use your Tools | Experts need the freedom to employ the set of tools they work most effectively and efficiently. | |
| 28 | Welded Lifespan | If documents are added as children to a document, these documents share the lifespan of the parent. If the parent is removed, so are the children. | Stable Dependencies Principle |
| 29 | Write to the many | Invest in the creation of a document relative to the amount of its readers and the estimated time they will save searching for the information. Also take into account that a clear text reduces the risk of misunderstanding. |
Incubator
The following practices are still under development.
| # | Name | Short Description | Principles |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Employ Mapping Documents | Mapping documents support adding information to the association of two (or more) documents. |
Resources
More on documentation values and documentation principles:
- Values
- Values represent characteristics or qualities of documentation that are important to readers, writers, and sponsors.
- Principles
- List of principles for agile documentation (mostly) derived from software development principles.
