Documentation

Documentation is a love letter that you write to your future self.

Damian Conway, computer scientist, a public speaker, and the author of several books.

Important

Remember: if your project or process is not well-documented to the point of being largely reproducible - it’s incomplete!

Why Document?

Documentation is a critical to improving transparency, clarity, and consistency of products and process. When done well, documentation can significantly reduce the amount of time wasted by team members, partners, the public (and ourselves!) who are looking for answers, institutional knowledge, or process and eliminate unnecessary duplication of work.

"The Handover" comic with four panels. Panel 1 shows two people in front of a computer monitor. One person says "This is my code" to the other person. Panel 2 shows the first person adding "It's your problem now". Panel 3 shows the first person saying "I'm out" as they walk away. Panel 4 shows the second person looking blankly at the computer monitor.

Comic illustrating one team member passing along a project to another team member without proper documentation…confusion, frustration, and lots of wasted time ensues. Original source of the comic is unknown.

Detailed documentation of every aspect of a project and all phases of the data and project life cycle - from planning, to data sources, analysis methods, code, workflows, and even why decisions were made - is critical because it helps ensure that data, results, and products are meaningful, accessible, and actionable for our teams, partners, communities, and the public. Documentation in our data-intensive workflows can also help identify areas of improvement in how we work with ourselves and others, and make it easier to identify solutions to project sticking points and create other paths forward. Moreover, clear documentation allows us to pick up where we left off, or easily transition projects from one person or team to another when roles change thus preventing the loss of incredibly valuable institutional knowledge that only comes with time and experience. Without proper documentation, it can be difficult for others to have confidence in, ground truth/validate, or build on existing work.

Individuals and teams that invest the time to create clear and complete documentation tend to find projects to be a bit more manageable because they have resources to guide them. Over the long-term, that investment into clear and comprehensive documentation can increase the reproducibility, transparency, and accessibility of their work. All of this, in turn, can make it easier to collaborate with internal and external partners, help build relationships and trust with partners and communities impacted by the project thus helping to operationalize equity into our projects, products, and process.

Illustration of core benefits of documentation, which require the documentation to be reproducible, transparent, and accessible. Illustration adapted from LaneFour

Illustration of core benefits of documentation, which require the documentation to be reproducible, transparent, and accessible. Illustration adapted from LaneFour

Documenting with an Equity Lens

There are abundantly clear benefits to ourselves, our teams and our partners when we invest in comprehensive and clear documentation. As you embark on your documentation journey, be sure to also consider what documentation would be helpful for others outside of your normal or core project team, and keep in mind the below considerations and remember to document with an equity lens.

Reproducibility: Reproducibility is a vital aspect of documentation that plays a key role in advancing and operationalizing equity into our data-intensive work. When our work is documented in a way that allows ourselves and others to replicate findings, it ensures that folks can access and validate the data as part of their understanding and workflows.

Transparency: Transparency in documentation is particularly vital for building trust with communities that have historically and to this day experience a lack of openness or consideration by government. By prioritizing transparent documentation, we can clearly communicate and connect the dots for folks when it comes to how we work, what data and methods we use, what that data tells us and the reasoning and actions we take throughout our processes, thus better enabling communities to understand how and why we make certain decisions and how all of that may impact them and others. This openness can empower current and potential future partners and communities to engage meaningfully with our work, ensuring that their voices are respected and needs are considered in ongoing and future work.

Accessibility: When our is projects, products, and process are presented in ways that center accessibility— such as offering offline materials, using multiple languages, or documenting in plain language — it lowers barriers and makes it easier for individuals to participate and engage. Prioritizing accessibility in our documentation not only increases access to vital information but also demonstrates a genuine commitment to inclusivity and respect for diverse experiences.

Collaboration: If documentation exists and that documentation is comprehensive, reproducible, transparent, and accessible then our projects, products, and process can help us rebuild trust, repair old relationships or start new ones and ultimately make it easier for communities to want to engage, collaborate and meaningfully contribute to our processes, or better yet, co-create products and resources with us. Prioritizing documentation and creating it with an equity lens, can help us bridge gaps in communication and understanding, ultimately fostering trust, collaboration, and relationships with communities that have had the experience of being excluded or otherwise overlooked in our projects, products, and process.

Comprehensive documentation using an equity lens can be yet another tool we can use to operationalize equity and advance more equitable outcomes in our work.

What to Document << LEFT OFF HERE

Create graphic to replace this one with documentation categories? For Product, Users, Process within a Project?

Tran

tips provided in other sections of this handbook…but also…

process (to help with onboarding, setting expectations)

data-intensive workflows

metadata, data dictionaries

code (comments within the code; ReadMe, etc.)

reasoning behind decisions

Resources

Tools Available to Support Documentation:

Examples of Documentation