Creating documentation for the African audience

For this talk, we surveyed various African companies to find out:
- How they create documentation for their audience
and how they handle the workflow?
- What tools do they use for creation as well as feedback?

Transcript

1. Creating Documentation for the African audience Write the Docs Prague 2022
2. about us Mustapha Rufai Lead, Developer Engagement, Paga Benny Ifeanyi Iheagwara Data analyst, Technical writer, Hit Subscribe & Sematext
3. TABLE OF CONTENTS Developer community in Africa Africa is building How African companies communicate to their audience? Approach to documentation Challenges, feedback , and iterative process 01 02 03 04 05
4. 10 20 What is technical documentation? Technical documentation is content created (in technical language) to describe the use, functionality, or architecture of a product, system, or service.
5. 01 Developer community in Africa
6. 10 20 https://technext.ng/2022/02/22/africa-now-has-716000-software-developers-a-3-8-rise-in-one-year/ https://tunga.io/african-software-developers-best-countries-for-sourcing/ https://nextbillionusers.google/research/africa-developer-community-2021/# 716,000 Google estimated developers across Africa in 2021
7. 02 Africa is building
8. https://briterbridges.com/ecosystem-maps https://www.crunchbase.com/discover/organization.companies/3ac69a5b347980484e3ba9dd8bc1d43e https://www.readthegeneralist.com/briefing/africa 24,000 Crunchbase’s startups with headquarters across the continent
10. 03 How African companies communicate to their audience?
11. Audience How do they communicate to their audience?
12. 04 Approach to Documentation
13. Companies ❏ Paga • Africa’s Talking Approaches • Team • Industry • Tools • Community • • Products
14. • ◦ Details how to use a service ◦ Provides access to support team ◦ Provides best practices ◦ Provides guides • • Goals For Documentation
15. • ◦ Details how to use a service • Provides access to support team ◦ Provides best practices ◦ Provides guides • • Goals For Documentation
16. • ◦ Details how to use a service ◦ Provides access to support team ◦ Provides best practices ◦ Provides guides • • Goals For Documentation
17. • ◦ Details how to use a service ◦ Provides access to support team ◦ Provides best practices ◦ Provides guides • • Goals For Documentation
18. • ◦ Hosting ◦ Open api specs ◦ Libraries and SDK ◦ Demo ◦ Community ◦ Developer Engagement • • Tools Used For Documentation
19. • ◦ Hosting ◦ Open API Specification ◦ Libraries and SDK ◦ Demo ◦ Community ◦ Developer Engagement • • Tools Used For Documentation
20. • ◦ ◦ Hosting ◦ Open API Specification ◦ Libraries and SDK ◦ Demo ◦ Community ◦ Developer Engagement • • Tools Used For Documentation
21. • ◦ ◦ Hosting ◦ Open API Specification ◦ Libraries and SDK ◦ Demo ◦ Community ◦ Developer Engagement • • Tools Used For Documentation
22. • ◦ ◦ Hosting ◦ Open API Specification ◦ Libraries and SDK ◦ Demo ◦ Community ◦ Developer Engagement • • Tools Used For Documentation
23. • ◦ ◦ Hosting ◦ Open API Specification ◦ Libraries and SDK ◦ Demo ◦ Community ◦ Developer Engagement • • Tools Used For Documentation
24. 05 Challenges, feedback, and iterative process
25. • ◦ • Legacy Code ”Battle to conform to Open API Specification” • Not Dedicated Technical Writing Team • Community • Developer Engagement • • Challenges
26. • ◦ • Legacy Code ”Battle to conform to Open API Specification” • Not Dedicated Technical Writing Team • Community • Developer Engagement • • Challenges
27. • ◦ • Legacy Code ”Battle to conform to Open API Specification” • Not Dedicated Technical Writing Team • Community • Developer Engagement • • Challenges
28. • ◦ • Legacy Code ”Battle to conform to Open API Specification” • Not Dedicated Technical Writing Team • Community • Developer Engagement • • Challenges
29. Big thanks to the community! Special thanks to WTD, Daisy (M-Pesa, Safaricom), Micheal (Africa’s Talking), Blessing (Okra), and everyone who contributed. Mustapha Rufai Write the Docs Slack: rufai Email: ShotByMustopha@gmail.com Twitter: @iafur Benny Ifeanyi Iheagwara Write the Docs Slack: Benny Email: Iheifeanyi@gmail.com Twitter: @bennykillua