Writing and Maintaining Technical Documentation

Effective technical documentation is a critical component of maintainable software systems. Well-written documentation reduces onboarding time, minimizes support burden, and serves as a single source of truth for architectural decisions and implementation patterns.

Documentation Philosophy

Write for Your Audience

Technical documentation serves multiple audiences with different needs:

• New developers: Need conceptual overviews, getting started guides, and common patterns

• Experienced team members: Need detailed API references, edge cases, and optimization techniques

• Operations teams: Need runbooks, troubleshooting guides, and monitoring procedures

• Architects: Need system diagrams, integration patterns, and design decisions

Tailor content depth and terminology to your target audience. Avoid assuming knowledge that new team members won't have, but don't over-explain concepts that experienced developers already understand.

Documentation as Code

Treat documentation with the same rigor as code:

• Version control: Store documentation in the same repository as code.

• Review process: Require peer review for documentation changes.

• Broken link checking: Validate internal and external references.

• Search optimization: Structure content for discoverability.

Living Documentation

Documentation decays without maintenance:

• Update on code changes: Documentation updates are part of definition of done.

• Regular reviews: Schedule periodic audits to ensure accuracy.

• Deprecation markers: Clearly flag outdated content with removal dates.

Style Guide Foundations

Follow Google's Technical Writing Style Guide as your baseline, with the following Salesforce-specific adaptations.

Terminology Standards

Maintain consistent terminology:

Salesforce-specific terms:

• Use "org" or "organization", not "instance" or "environment".

• Use "record" not "row" or "entry".

• Use "field" not "column" or "attribute".

Code element formatting:

• Class names: AccountTriggerHandler

• Method names: processRecords()

• Field names: Account.AnnualRevenue

• sObject API names: Account, Opportunity, CustomObject__c