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DOCS OR IT DIDN’T HAPPEN! (with Q&A) Mikey Ariel @ThatDocsLady @WriteTheDocs DjangoCon Europe, April 2019

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Why are we here? The Q&A section will include first questions that were collected in advance from Twitter, and then questions collected during the talk from Slack and moderated by the host. Please ask responsibly! If you have a question or need some help with your documentation, please come and find me during the conference! You can also email, Slack, or tweet @ThatDocsLady with your questions any time. ◉ We want to have more users and contributors ◉ We believe (or want to believe) that docs can help ◉ is stopping us from working on docs

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Who is That Docs Lady? @ThatDocsLady docs@docsideofthemoon.com @WriteTheDocs

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WHAT’S ON THE MENU TODAY?

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Content Strategy Plan a little, save a lot

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Content Strategy Plan a little, save a lot DevOps for Docs Not just for developers anymore

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Content Strategy Plan a little, save a lot Community Spirit We’re all in this together DevOps for Docs Not just for developers anymore

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JOIN THE DOCUMENTARIAN CLUB!

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“ “A documentarian is someone who cares about documentation and communication in the software industry, regardless of job title.” http://www.writethedocs.org/documentarians/

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Community Writers DevOps Testers Designers Marketing Developers Support DOCUMENTARIANS

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CONTENT STRATEGY Asking the right questions in advance can save a lot of time later 1

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NEED-TO-KNOW DOCS (and no, you don’t need to know everything)

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Need-to-Know Documentation

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Why Need-to-Know Documentation

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Goal-Oriented Docs

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Why Who Need-to-Know Documentation

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GNOME Help help.gnome.org help.gnome.org

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GNOME Help help.gnome.org Users Developers Administrators

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Why What Who Need-to-Know Documentation

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Minishift README github.com/minishift/minishift

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Why When What Who Need-to-Know Documentation

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Arch Linux Wiki wiki.archlinux.org

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Arch Linux Wiki wiki.archlinux.org

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Why Where When What Who Need-to-Know Documentation

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Minishift Troubleshooting github.com/minishift/minishift/issues/1152

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Minishift Troubleshooting github.com/minishift/minishift-centos-iso/pull/119

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Minishift Troubleshooting docs.openshift.org/latest/minishift/troubleshooting/troubleshooting-misc

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Why Where When What Who Need-to-Know Documentation

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DEVOPS FOR DOCS Let’s geek out about processes, tools, and workflows, oh my! 2

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INTEGRATION If you can’t beat them, join them!

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Docs-as-Code github.com/minishift/minishift

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Hierarchical Source Content github.com/minishift/minishift

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Issue Tracking github.com/minishift/minishift

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Issue Tracking github.com/minishift/minishift

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CONTINUOUS PUBLICATION No need to stop the press anymore!

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Publication Tools

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Continuous Deployment readthedocs.org/projects/writethedocs-www/builds

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Live-Preview Staging github.com/writethedocs/www/pulls/

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TESTING AUTOMATION More than a just a spell-checker!

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Code Blocks Validation github.com/endocode/shelldoc

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Linguistic Validation www.hemingwayapp.com

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Test Automation Framework github.com/emender/emender

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COMMUNITY SPIRIT Let’s help our contributors help us and help each other 3

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“ Docs or it didn’t happen! - Me, at the beginning of this presentation

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Django Project Linux Kernel OpenStack Documentation as a Deliverable

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Contribution Guides nixos.wiki/wiki/Contributing_to_Nix_documentation

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Templates www.writethedocs.org/guide/writing/beginners-guide-to-docs

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Modular Docs Project github.com/redhat-documentation/modular-docs

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Modular Docs Project redhat-documentation.github.io/modular-docs

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Modular Docs Project github.com/redhat-documentation/modular-docs/tree/master/modular-docs-manual/files

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Modular Docs Project [...]/modular-docs-manual/filesTEMPLATE_PROCEDURE_doing-one-procedure.adoc

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Meet and greet more Documentarians!

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Write the Docs

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Doc-to-Dev Outreach Find me for a chat at the conference! (I have stickers)

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Season of Docs developers.google.com/season-of-docs

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Q&A Crowdsourced, anonymized, and non-weaponized questions 4

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Grammar, Syntax, and Linguistics 1

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Grammar, Syntax, and Linguistics 1 “Do you see benefits in using/avoiding pronouns in docs? "Property x allows you to do y" vs "Property x allows for doing y". Do you have recommendations on when which version makes more sense or is more appropriate?”

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Grammar, Syntax, and Linguistics 1 “Do you see benefits in using/avoiding pronouns in docs? "Property x allows you to do y" vs "Property x allows for doing y". Do you have recommendations on when which version makes more sense or is more appropriate?” MINIMALISM!

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Grammar, Syntax, and Linguistics 1 "Property x allows you to do y." "Property x allows for doing y." "With X one can do Y." "With X doing Y is possible." "With X it's possible to do Y."

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Grammar, Syntax, and Linguistics 1 "Property x allows you to do y." "Property x allows for doing y." "With X one can do Y." "With X doing Y is possible." "With X it's possible to do Y." “You do X with Y.”

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Grammar, Syntax, and Linguistics 1 "Property x allows you to do y." "Property x allows for doing y." "With X one can do Y." "With X doing Y is possible." "With X it's possible to do Y." ● 2nd voice (“you”) in the relevant context (persona-based docs) ● “Things” cannot “allow” humans to do things (anthropomorphism) ● Active voice indicates goal first and method second (goal-oriented wording) ● Gerunds (“*ing”) are grammatically ambiguous and hard to translate “You do X with Y.”

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Collaboration, Contributions, and Community 2

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Collaboration, Contributions, and Community 2 “So I’ve got a project. I know I need docs. I can write, but I know it’s not my strength. What do I need to do to make it easier for someone who *does* have those skills to contribute?”

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Collaboration, Contributions, and Community 2 “So I’ve got a project. I know I need docs. I can write, but I know it’s not my strength. What do I need to do to make it easier for someone who *does* have those skills to contribute?” “When starting a project from scratch, how does one figure out how to structure the documentation and what are the first $n things one should take care of?”

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Collaboration, Contributions, and Community 2 “So I’ve got a project. I know I need docs. I can write, but I know it’s not my strength. What do I need to do to make it easier for someone who *does* have those skills to contribute?” “When starting a project from scratch, how does one figure out how to structure the documentation and what are the first $n things one should take care of?” “It’s very hard for someone to write documentation for a project if they don’t know how the project works. How do you best facilitate that knowledge transfer (other than, of course, writing docs…)? How do you bootstrap the process?”

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Collaboration, Contributions, and Community 2 “So I’ve got a project. I know I need docs. I can write, but I know it’s not my strength. What do I need to do to make it easier for someone who *does* have those skills to contribute?” “When starting a project from scratch, how does one figure out how to structure the documentation and what are the first $n things one should take care of?” “It’s very hard for someone to write documentation for a project if they don’t know how the project works. How do you best facilitate that knowledge transfer (other than, of course, writing docs…)? How do you bootstrap the process?” “I don't know what I don't know so how can I possibly know what you don't know?”

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Collaboration, Contributions, and Community 2 “So I’ve got a project. I know I need docs. I can write, but I know it’s not my strength. What do I need to do to make it easier for someone who *does* have those skills to contribute?” “When starting a project from scratch, how does one figure out how to structure the documentation and what are the first $n things one should take care of?” “It’s very hard for someone to write documentation for a project if they don’t know how the project works. How do you best facilitate that knowledge transfer (other than, of course, writing docs…)? How do you bootstrap the process?” “I don't know what I don't know so how can I possibly know what you don't know?” TALK TO PEOPLE!

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Collaboration, Contributions, and Community 2 “So I’ve got a project. I know I need docs. I can write, but I know it’s not my strength. What do I need to do to make it easier for someone who *does* have those skills to contribute?”

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Collaboration, Contributions, and Community 2 “So I’ve got a project. I know I need docs. I can write, but I know it’s not my strength. What do I need to do to make it easier for someone who *does* have those skills to contribute?” ● Find people with writing experience and ask them to test your software, give you feedback, and help you build contribution guidelines ● Offer mentorship and fellowship to new contributors who can help you fix the docs but might not have programming experience (or experience with your project) ● Facilitate skill-sharing sprints or meetups where developers and writers can pair-work on documentation-related tasks

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2 “When starting a project from scratch, how does one figure out how to structure the documentation and what are the first $n things one should take care of?” Collaboration, Contributions, and Community

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2 “When starting a project from scratch, how does one figure out how to structure the documentation and what are the first $n things one should take care of?” ● Ask (potential) users what their workflow with your software is likely to be (day 0, 1, 2, etc) and port that knowledge over to the docs (document the UX) ● Research best practices and templates (for example, modular docs project) and look up docs for projects that you like to study how they’re organized Collaboration, Contributions, and Community

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2 “It’s very hard for someone to write documentation for a project if they don’t know how the project works. How do you best facilitate that knowledge transfer (other than, of course, writing docs…)? How do you bootstrap the process?” “I don't know what I don't know so how can I possibly know what you don't know?” Collaboration, Contributions, and Community

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2 “It’s very hard for someone to write documentation for a project if they don’t know how the project works. How do you best facilitate that knowledge transfer (other than, of course, writing docs…)? How do you bootstrap the process?” “I don't know what I don't know so how can I possibly know what you don't know?” ● Accepting that you have a problem is the first step in solving the problem ● Reach out to your peers, make yourself available for training and mentorship, and be kind to people who want to contribute (welcoming projects get more contributors!) ● Most writers don’t have a deeper understanding of how the code is written, but their strategic communication experience is what makes them great writers - respect that! Collaboration, Contributions, and Community

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MOAR #QUESTIONS? (remember to ask responsibly) (I’ll also be available for 1:1 questions later)

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@ThatDocsLady docs@docsideofthemoon.com @WriteTheDocs LET’S WRITE SOME DOCS!