Creating documentation for the African audience

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

Transcript

1. Creating
   Documentation for the
   African audience
   Write the Docs Prague 2022
   

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2. about us
   Mustapha Rufai
   Lead, Developer Engagement, Paga
   Benny Ifeanyi Iheagwara
   Data analyst, Technical writer, Hit Subscribe & Sematext
   

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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
   

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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.
   

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5. 01
   Developer community in Africa
   

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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
   

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7. 02
   Africa is building
   

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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
   

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9. View Slide

10. 03
    How African companies
    communicate to their audience?
    

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11. Audience
    How do they communicate to
    their audience?
    

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12. 04
    Approach to Documentation
    

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13. Companies
    ❏ Paga
    ● Africa’s Talking
    Approaches
    ● Team
    ● Industry
    ● Tools
    ● Community
    ●
    ●
    Products
    

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14. ●
    ○ Details how to use a service
    ○ Provides access to support team
    ○ Provides best practices
    ○ Provides guides
    ●
    ●
    Goals For Documentation
    

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15. ●
    ○ Details how to use a service
    ● Provides access to support team
    ○ Provides best practices
    ○ Provides guides
    ●
    ●
    Goals For Documentation
    

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16. ●
    ○ Details how to use a service
    ○ Provides access to support team
    ○ Provides best practices
    ○ Provides guides
    ●
    ●
    Goals For Documentation
    

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17. ●
    ○ Details how to use a service
    ○ Provides access to support team
    ○ Provides best practices
    ○ Provides guides
    ●
    ●
    Goals For Documentation
    

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18. ●
    ○ Hosting
    ○ Open api specs
    ○ Libraries and SDK
    ○ Demo
    ○ Community
    ○ Developer Engagement
    ●
    ●
    Tools Used For Documentation
    

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19. ●
    ○ Hosting
    ○ Open API Specification
    ○ Libraries and SDK
    ○ Demo
    ○ Community
    ○ Developer Engagement
    ●
    ●
    Tools Used For Documentation
    

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20. ●
    ○
    ○ Hosting
    ○ Open API Specification
    ○ Libraries and SDK
    ○ Demo
    ○ Community
    ○ Developer Engagement
    ●
    ●
    Tools Used For Documentation
    

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21. ●
    ○
    ○ Hosting
    ○ Open API Specification
    ○ Libraries and SDK
    ○ Demo
    ○ Community
    ○ Developer Engagement
    ●
    ●
    Tools Used For Documentation
    

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22. ●
    ○
    ○ Hosting
    ○ Open API Specification
    ○ Libraries and SDK
    ○ Demo
    ○ Community
    ○ Developer Engagement
    ●
    ●
    Tools Used For Documentation
    

    View Slide

23. ●
    ○
    ○ Hosting
    ○ Open API Specification
    ○ Libraries and SDK
    ○ Demo
    ○ Community
    ○ Developer Engagement
    ●
    ●
    Tools Used For Documentation
    

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24. 05
    Challenges, feedback, and
    iterative process
    

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25. ●
    ○
    ● Legacy Code ”Battle to conform to Open API Specification”
    ● Not Dedicated Technical Writing Team
    ● Community
    ● Developer Engagement
    ●
    ●
    Challenges
    

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26. ●
    ○
    ● Legacy Code ”Battle to conform to Open API Specification”
    ● Not Dedicated Technical Writing Team
    ● Community
    ● Developer Engagement
    ●
    ●
    Challenges
    

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27. ●
    ○
    ● Legacy Code ”Battle to conform to Open API Specification”
    ● Not Dedicated Technical Writing Team
    ● Community
    ● Developer Engagement
    ●
    ●
    Challenges
    

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28. ●
    ○
    ● Legacy Code ”Battle to conform to Open API Specification”
    ● Not Dedicated Technical Writing Team
    ● Community
    ● Developer Engagement
    ●
    ●
    Challenges
    

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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
    

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