Investing in engineering documentation (Docs) means investing in community user experience. This book teaches readers how mastering the docs-as-code ecosystem empowers communities to understand better their favorite products and Open-Source (OSS) technologies better.
Author Alejandra Quetzalli believes that “docs-as-ecosystem” represents a more comprehensive and collaborative approach to documentation development than “docsas- code” because it recognizes that documentation is more than just code. Docs involve technical writing, design, community feedback, community management, accessibility, SEO, UX, and today… even Artificial Intelligence tools! The word ecosystem promotes a paradigm where we treat documentation as a complex and dynamic system that must be managed and nurtured.
In this book, you’ll acquire practical skills such as creating public style guides, incorporating responsive and accessible design, designing user flows and information architecture, retrieving user feedback, and setting up Docs analytics. You’ll learn to identify the difference in work processes between maintaining Docs for a product versus an OSS technology. You’ll discover the secrets to managing technical writers and OSS contributions, all while building a thriving Docs community. To end on a futuristic note, you’ll discover why technical writers who harness Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools (i.e., ChatGPT) need not fear a robot uprising anytime soon.
What You'll Learn
- Examine accessibility and the user experience
- Understand Information architecture
- Review docs-as-ecosystem processes
- Manage technical writers
- Oversee OSS Docs contributions
- Retrieve and integrate user feedback
- Build Docs and Education communities
Who This Book is For
Developers of all levels, VPs of Product/Engineering, Product Managers, and Designers,
Alejandra Quetzalli is a Latina from México with 10 years of experience in the tech industry and a devoted autism service dog, Canela. Canela works side-by-side with Alejandra, even joining her traveling and speaking engagements at tech conferences worldwide. Throughout her career, Alejandra has worked in SEO, Paid Search, Full-Stack development, UX, Developer Relations, Technical Writing (Engineering Documentation), AWS Cloud Advocacy, startups, and Open-Source (OSS). She's currently a core maintainer at AsyncAPI Initiative, leading OSS initiatives for AsyncAPI Docs and Education. In 2022, she became a member of the AsyncAPI Technical Steering Committee (TSC).
In 2016, she founded sheCodesNow.org to provide accessible programming workshops for women and minorities transitioning into tech. Today, sheCodesNow has grown to develop technical courses in technical writing, developer relations, and tech community building.
