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Do you sometimes feel like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day? Reliving the same day over and over again? I sure feel like that in some discussions with my team: revisiting the same discussion multiple times, because we fail to document decisions properly. Redrawing that diagram one more time, to come to the same conclusion. Searching for that one document in your email? Sifting through several versions of the same document, not sure which version is the latest?
Next time around you can avoid these situations, using simple tools that your team is already using: Git and Markdown. Add Architecture Decision Records into the mix to capture the important decisions and the context in which those decisions were made.
Documentation should be an artifact of your software development process
Documentation can only add value if everybody knows where to find it and can edit it easily. For development teams that means keeping the documentation as close as possible to the source code. Putting both in the same version control repository instantly makes sure everybody knows where it is and how to edit it. The most often used solution for version control is Git. The Stack Overflow Survey of 2018 reported that 87.2% of the developers consider Git their favorite version control system. It is a powerful, distributed version control system, developed with speed in mind. Perfect to keep track of changes in your documentation, as Git keeps a record of who changed what and why.
Storing both code and documentation together allows the team to treat the code as documentation and supplement where necessary with documentation as code. Meaning all code should be self-explanatory as much as possible, but when additional documentation is necessary, you treat your documentation as an artifact of your software development process. Just like the code, documentation is under version control, written in plain text and subjected to code reviews.
You already have all the tools you need
The most often used tool to write documentation in plain text is Markdown. All major software development tooling, such as Gitlab, Azure DevOps & GitHub, support Markdown files nowadays. Markdown is a lightweight markup format, that converts easily into web pages. You might have seen it as a README.md file in one of your repositories. However, it can also be used to document other aspects of your application. Because the files are stored in Git as plain text, it is easy to include documentation changes in your merge requests. The web interface of your Git repository will automatically convert the Markdown format to a nicely formatted page for everyone to read. Nothing is keeping you from starting right now, the tooling is already present, all it takes is one text file!
Getting it right
Finding the right level of documentation for your team can be quite a struggle. The Agile Manifesto calls for working software over comprehensive documentation, which is often wrongly interpreted as not having any documentation at all. There’s a lot of wiggle room between “no-documentation-at-all” and “everything-documented-to-a-tee”. Lightweight, easy to maintain documentation is the sweet spot you should aim for. Avoid going too heavy on the details, as keeping everything up to date will become a burden as your documentation grows. Include too little details and your documentation will not add value.
Architecture Decision Records (ADR) is a technique to help your team document decisions made. It is originally intended to record architecture related decisions, but I’ve had good results documenting a wider range of decision types. ADR provides a template to motivate to your future self why certain decisions have been made. In a Markdown, you clarify which options have been considered and why the chosen option appeared to be the best at that point in time. You include the goal you were trying to achieve and any negative side effects you consciously accept by choosing this option.
“In the context of <use case/user story u>, facing <concern c> we decided for <option o> to achieve <quality q>, accepting <downside d>.”
Consistently expand the collection of decision records in your project and this collection grows to become a valuable source of information for the developers that may join your project after you. They can use it as a sensemaking tool for the code base, to figure out why things evolved as they did. We’ve all been in situations where the inherited code made no sense; Architecture Decision Records can help you navigate those kinds of situations with more confidence.
Tips
- Install a Markdown extension for Visual Studio Code to get a live preview right in your editor.
- Make sure to add or adjust documentation for each user story. Add a check to your team’s Definition of Done as a reminder if necessary.
- Consider using Behavior Driven Development, to reduce the manual effort involved with updating documentation and use your acceptance tests as living documentation.
- Start with recording your decisions and don’t get hung up on the tooling around ADR. Starting is far more important because, in the end, it’s just a bunch of text files!
- Non-technical people may struggle with Git, pair with them to teach them how to use Git. Alternatively, you can show them how to create branches through the UI and edit the documentation there. As a result, everybody can contribute and the documentation can still be reviewed. All Git repositories with a web UI support this workflow.
- Looking to migrate existing documentation to Markdown? Have a look at the Pandoc project, it can convert between many different file formats, including Word.
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