WeAreDevelopers Logo WeAreDevelopers
Sign in
For You LIVE
World Congress 2023 • Sep 21, 2023

Technical Documentation - How Can I Write Them Better and Why Should I Care?

Hila Fish

Still hoping your code is self-documenting? Discover how adopting Docs-as-Code prevents frustrating midnight incidents, accelerates onboarding, and permanently eliminates single points of failure.

Pause
Mute Enter Fullscreen
#1 about 3 min

Introduction and the value of runbooks

How clear runbooks help mitigate production incidents and reduce downtime during out-of-hours on-call shifts.

#2 about 2 min

Identifying common types of technical documentation

How system design briefs, project readme files, and onboarding outlines share essential team knowledge.

#3 about 1 min

Debunking the myth of self-documenting code

Why code syntax alone cannot convey business logic, architectural intentions, or reasoning behind complex implementations.

#4 about 7 min

Career and team benefits of writing documentation

How documenting internal processes reduces daily interruptions while increasing team velocity and individual visibility.

#5 about 4 min

Adapting technical documentation for diverse audiences

Identifying what concepts must be covered for internal operating systems versus external API consumers.

#6 about 1 min

Establishing centralized documentation and storage standards

How adopting a single knowledge base minimizes context switching and helps teams locate resources quickly.

#7 about 3 min

Formatting documentation for fast developer scannability

Structuring technical guides with clear headings, short sentences, and color emphasis to support quick developer scanning.

#8 about 3 min

Incorporating docs as code into CI/CD pipelines

Applying markdown and automated pipeline validations to treat documentation quality as strictly as software tests.

#9 about 3 min

Separating technical concepts from instructional tasks

Structuring content to decouple high-level architectural reasoning from actionable step-by-step procedure guides.

#10 about 3 min

Enforcing documentation requirements in operational workflows

Equipping engineering managers to require updated documentation as an undeniable part of the definition of done.

#11 about 4 min

Addressing AI assistance and documentation tooling

Addressing audience questions about using large language models and tracking documentation updates across various code repositories.

Matching moments

2:49 min

Boosting team productivity with comprehensive engineering documentation

Abiodun Olowode Abiodun Olowode · WWC 2024

1:58 min

Designing technical documentation for cross-functional audiences

Simon Lasselsberger · WWC 2022

4:57 min

Treating technical documentation as a core engineering practice

Mike Elsmore · WWC 2023

3:08 min

Treating developer documentation as a primary product

Justin Kitagawa · Coffee With Developers

1:24 min

Building an engineering culture around reading and writing documentation

Anastasiia Tymoshchuk · WWC 2023

6:03 min

Driving business objectives through comprehensive technical documentation

Luise Freese Luise Freese · WWC 2024

More from World Congress 2023

The year 3000, a brief history of Web Development thumbnail
25:30
over 2 years ago

The year 3000, a brief history of Web Development

Lorenzo Pieri

Demografie nutzen um jedem Bewerber das passende Angebot zu machen! thumbnail
8:52
over 2 years ago

Demografie nutzen um jedem Bewerber das passende Angebot zu machen!

Nathalie Gierth

Guided Memory Management: Rust's Ownership Model thumbnail
0:18
almost 3 years ago

Guided Memory Management: Rust's Ownership Model

Stefan Baumgartner

Passwordless future: WebAuthn and Passkeys in practice thumbnail
32:32
almost 3 years ago

Passwordless future: WebAuthn and Passkeys in practice

Clemens Hübner

External Secrets Operator: the secrets management toolbox for self-sufficient teams thumbnail
30:07
almost 3 years ago

External Secrets Operator: the secrets management toolbox for self-sufficient teams

Moritz Johner

Building Reliable Serverless Applications with AWS CDK and Testing thumbnail
25:18
almost 3 years ago

Building Reliable Serverless Applications with AWS CDK and Testing

Raphael Manke

Upcoming sessions on this topic

Open session

World Congress 2026 North America

The Broken Rung: How AI is Rebuilding Software Development from the Ground Up

Tomislav Tipurić

Chief Technology Officer, Nephos

Tomislav Tipurić
Open session

World Congress 2026 North America

When Humans Stop Writing Code: Rethinking Languages, Compilers, and Responsibility

Simon Auer

Organizer of flutter vienna meetup and CEO of marqably

Simon Auer
Open session

World Congress 2026 North America

Agentic Drift: keeping pace with your agents

John Coghlan

Senior Director, Developer Advocacy at GitLab

John Coghlan
Open session

World Congress 2026 North America

The spectrum of agentic coding: From vibe coding to high-quality software engineering

YK Sugi

Developer Experience Manager at Eventual

YK Sugi
Open session

World Congress 2026 North America

GitHub’s Team X-Ray: Your Repository Knows More About Your Team Than Your Team Does

Andrea Griffiths

Senior Developer Advocate

Andrea Griffiths
Open session

World Congress 2026 North America

Beyond the Code: Human-AI Synergies in Product Development

Ajita Kanchivakam Ananth

Staff Technical Program Manager at Google

Ajita Kanchivakam Ananth

Related videos

Humanizing Your Documentation thumbnail
27:25
WWC 2022 • about 4 years ago

Humanizing Your Documentation

Carolyn Stransky

Continuous Documentation for Your Code thumbnail
20:19
WWC 2023 • almost 3 years ago

Continuous Documentation for Your Code

Anastasiia Tymoshchuk

Documentation as a Tool: Introducing Documentation Driven Development thumbnail
22:45
WWC 2024 • almost 2 years ago

Documentation as a Tool: Introducing Documentation Driven Development

Abiodun Olowode

Your Docs Are Now AI Infrastructure (Treat Them Like It) thumbnail
9:29
WWC Europe 2026 • about 1 month ago

Your Docs Are Now AI Infrastructure (Treat Them Like It)

Emil Sorensen

Making Documentation AI-Ready: Preparing Your Docs for the LLM Era thumbnail
27:16
WWC Europe 2026 • about 1 month ago

Making Documentation AI-Ready: Preparing Your Docs for the LLM Era

Edvin Teskeredzic

Diving into Developer Experience thumbnail
20:16
WWC 2024 • almost 2 years ago

Diving into Developer Experience

Ricky Holtz

Related articles

From learning to earning

Jobs that call for the skills explored in this talk.