Why Documentation Is Important for a Software Engineer?
Documentation improves communication, saves time, and enhances teamwork. It encourages thoughtful decision-making, helping you stay unbiased and become a better decision-maker for the future.
When I started my career, I thought documentation was boring and unnecessary. I believed my productivity was measured by how many lines of code I wrote daily. When my mentor told me about the importance of documentation, I ignored it. I didn’t understand how useful it was until many years later.
After working in different companies and teams, my thinking about documentation changed. I realised documentation is a powerful way to share information, even when people are not available to talk.
Imagine you need to explain a topic to your team members or a newly joined colleague. This requires you to express your thoughts clearly and thoughtfully, reinforcing your understanding of the subject. Doing so will help you become a critical thinker and train your brain to understand topics more deeply. It will also encourage you to see things from others’ perspectives, enabling you to make unbiased decisions within the team.
Don’t write documentation just for the sake of it. It should be readable and meaningful for your audience. Thinking from your readers’ perspective is a valuable skill for any software engineer.
In this blog, I want to share my experience and why I now believe documentation is very important and will share some document types which will save several hours of your team.
Onboarding Document
Two years ago, I joined a big tech company working on simulation domain. The company had a good onboarding course for employees, but they didn’t have proper project documentation.
For example
There were no architecture diagrams to show how the system worked.
There were no data flow diagrams to explain how different microservices communicated.
Key information about the project was not written down.
I had to ask my teammates the same questions over and over. This wasted a lot of time for me and my team. If they had a proper onboarding document, it would have:
Saved time for everyone.
Helped new developers understand the project quickly.
Made the team more efficient.
A simple document with diagrams and key information can make onboarding much easier.
Design Document
I didn’t have habit of creating technical design documents for long time. As a result, I often faced unexpected problems while coding. After I started writing design documents, my work became much smoother.
Here’s how it helped:
Clear Planning: I understood the task better before starting.
Team Collaboration: Sharing the document helped my teammates give feedback early.
Problem Solving: I identified issues during the planning stage instead of during coding.
Creating design documentation made me think more carefully before starting work. It also improved communication with my team. I will share a simple design document template in my next blog post.
Technology Choices Document
Have you ever wondered why your team chose a specific technology? Over time, it’s easy to forget the reasons. That’s why it’s important to document the decisions your team makes.
Here’s why this is helpful:
Future Reference: When someone asks “Why did we choose this technology?” you’ll have an answer.
Consistency: It provides a framework for making future decisions for other members in your team.
Independence: The team doesn’t depend on one person’s memory or opinions.
A good technology decision document saves time, avoids confusion, and helps teams make better decisions in the future.
Coding Guideline (Don’ts) Document
When reviewing pull requests, it can be frustrating to give the same feedback repeatedly. To solve this problem, you can create a coding guidelines document.
Tips for creating coding guidelines:
Focus on the don’ts. A short list of things to avoid is easy to remember and very effective.
Keep the document simple and clear.
Share it with new team members to help them follow the rules from the start.
This makes code reviews faster and reduces the need for repeating feedback. It also improves the quality of the code.
Major Changes Document
When you make big changes to a project—like upgrading a framework or database version—it’s important to document the process. If you don’t, you might face the same challenges again in the future.
Here’s what to include in the document:
What changes were made and why.
Problems you faced and how you solved them.
Steps for upgrading in the future.
This document can save hours or even days of work for your team when similar changes are needed later.
Documentation is not just a tedious task—it’s an investment in your team’s success. It saves time, fosters collaboration, and creates a shared knowledge base. Over time, you’ll see the benefits, just as I did. Stay tuned for my next blog, where I’ll share a detailed template for technical design documentation!