Although it seems like documentation should be treated like other features worked on by a Scrum team, frequently it is not. When tech writers try to integrate into engineering Scrum teams, they usually run into a host of challenges. Excellent two part article from Tom Johnson.
In series of articles author reflects on the right integration model for tech writers in software shops that follow Scrum, especially in large companies. Should tech writers try to integrate into Scrum teams just like the other members? He then goes and explore basic mechanics of following a Scrum model (attend daily standups, attend sprint planning, attend retrospectives, etc)
He also points out how tech docs and agile remains one of the hottest discussions in tech writing. Then he describes his experience in detail including:
- floating across multiple projects
- variation across project teams makes for inconsistency
- how scope doesn’t apply to doc tasks
- no co-location means you miss out on undocumented details
- Scrum seems to encourage product-centered documentation
- working in Scrum versus working with Scrum
Excellent article, highly recommended.
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