Taking Documentation to the Next Level in Young Software Projects
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The document discusses the importance of documentation in young software projects, particularly focusing on the Erlang programming language. It highlights issues such as the lack of adequate documentation for mainstream users and the necessity of better structured and user-friendly resources. Suggestions for enhancing documentation quality include crowdsourcing contributions and improving findability and clarity to support project adoption.
Taking Documentation to the Next Level in Young Software Projects
- 1. Taking Documentation to the Next Level in Young Software Projects Erlang Factory, 23 October 2013 Andy Oram, O'Reilly Media
- 2. Do you contribute to documentation? Have you created a web page, blog posting, webinar, video, etc. about a software project? Have you answered a question on a mailing list or forum? Have you asked a question on a mailing list or forum? Erlang Factory, 23 October 2013 Andy Oram, O'Reilly Media
- 3. Structure of this talk Problems of documentation in young software projects Some research into the use of mailing lists and discussion forums Comments about online Erlang documentation Suggestions for developing more and better documentation Erlang Factory, 23 October 2013 Andy Oram, O'Reilly Media
- 4. Documentation and the adoption curve Innovators Early Adopters Mainstream success Documentation needed Erlang Factory, 23 October 2013 Andy Oram, O'Reilly Media Publishers (best case) Decline Publishers (worst case)
- 5. Documentation by the innovators Software developers tend to write for other people like themselves Assume deep background knowledge that can be transferred to their project Elements of innovator documentation Architectural justifications Comparisons to other projects Quick-starts Reference material Erlang Factory, 23 October 2013 Andy Oram, O'Reilly Media
- 6. Example: Riak documentation Focuses on architecture Useful to distinguish Riak from similar projects But does not connect architecture to use cases to make the information practical Erlang Factory, 23 October 2013 Andy Oram, O'Reilly Media
- 7. Early adopters arrive They possess enough background to use innovators' documentation Consider documentation adequate Promote project and generate enthusiasm that draws other users Erlang Factory, 23 October 2013 Andy Oram, O'Reilly Media
- 8. Mainstream users arrive Confused and alienated by the documentation Desperately search for help, which may or may not arrive Leave project if not engaged and aided Erlang Factory, 23 October 2013 Andy Oram, O'Reilly Media
- 9. Research on mailing lists Used on every project Easy to quantify results Every question reflects a failure at documentation Perhaps the feature is undocumented Perhaps the documentation could not be found Perhaps the documentation didn't seem relevant to the question Erlang Factory, 23 October 2013 Andy Oram, O'Reilly Media
- 10. Questions asked about mailing lists How many technical questions get answered? How long does it take to get an answer? How much noise is on the thread? http://praxagora.com/andyo/professional/mailing_list/mailing_list.html http://www.praxagora.com/andyo/professional/mailing_list_follow_up Erlang Factory, 23 October 2013 Andy Oram, O'Reilly Media
- 11. How many questions were answered? Unanswered 7 7 7 5 Erlang Factory, 23 October 2013 Andy Oram, O'Reilly Media Answered Fedora Linux 7 Ubuntu Linux 7 Rails 7 Perl 9
- 12. So, are mailing lists effective? Erlang Factory, 23 October 2013 Andy Oram, O'Reilly Media
- 13. How is Erlang documentation? Erlang is in a lucky position It is not a young project It has been able to develop innumerable training materials over the decades Several publishers have released professional books Functional principles have spread throughout the programming field One must consider the whole information ecosystem Erlang Factory, 23 October 2013 Andy Oram, O'Reilly Media
- 14. Comments on erlang.org Site is run by Ericsson Potentially backed by lots of resources But how much attention does the company give it? Erlang Factory, 23 October 2013 Andy Oram, O'Reilly Media
- 15. Comments on erlang.org Getting Started Erlang Factory, 23 October 2013 Andy Oram, O'Reilly Media
- 16. Assumptions in documentation Reader understands the math Reader understands the notion of recursion Reader has seen factorials used as an example of recursive programming Erlang Factory, 23 October 2013 Andy Oram, O'Reilly Media
- 17. Focusing on the code Reader must be able to pick out “active ingredients” in code Erlang Factory, 23 October 2013 Andy Oram, O'Reilly Media
- 18. Focusing on the executable code Reader must determine when and why each function runs Erlang Factory, 23 October 2013 Andy Oram, O'Reilly Media
- 19. Comments on erlang.org An Erlang Course Erlang Factory, 23 October 2013 Andy Oram, O'Reilly Media
- 20. Questions left by course Why does Erlang offer both tuples and lists? Do tuples and lists work like they do in other languages? When do you use a tuple and when do you use a list? Other lapses in course: unexplained syntax, isolated examples that don't build on each other, etc. Erlang Factory, 23 October 2013 Andy Oram, O'Reilly Media
- 21. Comments on erlangcentral.org Site run by the Industrial Erlang User Group Points to wide range of documents and other sites Solicits user contributions to wiki Erlang Factory, 23 October 2013 Andy Oram, O'Reilly Media
- 22. Criteria for evaluating documentation Availability—does it exist at all? Findability—can readers get answers? Quality—accuracy, readability, relevance, etc. Erlang Factory, 23 October 2013 Andy Oram, O'Reilly Media
- 23. Availability—try crowdsourcing Your developers don't have time to write everything Users have innate sympathy for other users They'll generate content anyway, so you can coordinate it intelligently Give up on “One Ring to Rule Them All” Erlang Factory, 23 October 2013 Andy Oram, O'Reilly Media
- 24. Crowdsourcing has a history Erlang Factory, 23 October 2013 Andy Oram, O'Reilly Media
- 25. Models for crowdsourcing Development and study of Talmud Greek symposium Erlang Factory, 23 October 2013 Andy Oram, O'Reilly Media
- 26. Mobilizing users for documentation Search for bloggers, contributors to forums External motivations can encourage contributions Access to developers is a motivation Don't strive for unity—embrace multivocality Let people use their own favorite media Erlang Factory, 23 October 2013 Andy Oram, O'Reilly Media
- 27. Availability—FLOSS Manuals Erlang Factory, 23 October 2013 Andy Oram, O'Reilly Media
- 28. Availability—FLOSS Manuals Coordinate volunteers around the world Create conventional books Foster translations Erlang Factory, 23 October 2013 Andy Oram, O'Reilly Media
- 29. FLOSS Manuals—sprints Bring volunteers together in one space Usually sponsored by an open source project Google has hosted many documentation sprints Erlang Factory, 23 October 2013 Andy Oram, O'Reilly Media
- 30. Findability—more than a search engine Add boxes for people to recommend documents “Read before this document” “Read after this document” Long-term goal: spider creates recommended paths through documents Erlang Factory, 23 October 2013 Andy Oram, O'Reilly Media
- 31. Quality—What's the ultimate goal? After reading the document, can the reader accomplish the task she set out to do? Erlang Factory, 23 October 2013 Andy Oram, O'Reilly Media
- 32. Quality—A/B testing Attach a quiz to a document As you rewrite the document, check how well the readers can answer the quiz Remember: a user experience encompasses more than one document Erlang Factory, 23 October 2013 Andy Oram, O'Reilly Media
- 33. Summary Documentation and training materials are crucial to mainstream adoption of young projects A serious need exists for better documentation Invest special efforts to create documentation, make it findable, and improve its quality Erlang Factory, 23 October 2013 Andy Oram, O'Reilly Media
- 34. About me @praxagora andyo@oreilly.com http://programming.oreilly.com/andyo Erlang Factory, 23 October 2013 Andy Oram, O'Reilly Media