Documentation Plan – is a document written by technical writers (usually, team leads or project leaders) to shape up the details of the work to be done. It helps structure all the processes within the team, and grant everyone access to the essential information.
A documentation plan can include varied elements. These are the things that get included to such plans by most companies:
- Project Name
- Scope and Objectives
- Detailed Content Plan
- Time Estimates
- Responsible Persons
- Workflow
- Resources (software, style guides, websites)
- Publishing Details (formats, ways of delivery to end users)
Writing such plans can help foresee bottlenecks and prevent issues that might appear in the project implementation process.
It is advised to create such plans before every major documentation iteration. And, it is crucial when a brand new documentation project appears.
You can also use such plans when you are trying to test some new workflow schemes. As you have all the input data written and organized, it will be easier to manage and analyse when you return with the pilot results.
A documentation plan is written at the preparation step of creating user manuals. Read this article to find out how it fits into the whole documentation authoring process.