This Is Your Team. This Is Your Team on Bad

This Is Your Team. This Is Your Team on Bad Documentation.

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You’re a new hire, ready to tackle your first project. But the onboarding guide you’ve been given feels like instructions for last year’s version of the product—close, but not quite right. Frustration builds as you scramble to fill the gaps with trial and error and scattered advice. Sound familiar?

Bad documentation isn’t just frustrating—it’s a silent productivity killer. Imagine a team stumbling through broken links and outdated guides, losing hours every week trying to make sense of it all. How big of a problem is this? How many hours is your team wasting this week because of outdated docs? Multiply that over a year—still think it’s not worth the time? According to Atlassian's 2024 Developer Experience Report, developers lose 20% of their workweek to avoidable inefficiencies like searching for information. Now imagine turning that time into productive, focused work with robust, accurate documentation. But it doesn’t have to be this way. The hardest part about documentation isn’t writing it—it’s keeping it accurate and relevant.

So how do we prevent our documentation from becoming a graveyard of misinformation? Let’s break it down into actionable strategies to keep your documentation useful, maintainable, and frustration-free.

Completeness Without Bloat

Rule #1: Write as much as necessary, but no more.

Developers often fall into one of two camps when it comes to documentation:

The Over-Documenter: Describes every detail, drowning readers in irrelevant information.
The Under-Documenter: Jots down terse notes, relying on a “read the code” philosophy.

Neither works. The best documentation starts with a clear understanding of your audience. Are they new hires setting up their local environment? Teammates debugging an issue in production? Tailor your content accordingly and focus on what’s critical for success.

Checklist for Completeness

Setup Guides: Include every step to get the project running, from installing dependencies to running tests.
Critical Flows: Document key workflows like deployments, debugging, or resolving merge conflicts.
Core Concepts: Explain the “why” behind architectural decisions, not just the “what.”

Great documentation is concise and purposeful—like a recipe that gets you to the end result without a lecture on the history of bread. For example, a setup guide should include every essential step without overloading the reader with edge cases.

Automate Documentation Syncing

Outdated documentation is worse than no documentation. Why? Because it sends developers on wild goose chases, eroding trust in your team’s processes. The solution? Make your docs as dynamic as your code.

Strategies to Keep Docs in Sync

Use Doc Generation Tools: Tools like Swagger or Postman can generate API docs directly from code, ensuring updates happen automatically when the code changes.
Inline Comments Over External Docs: High-quality comments in your codebase (e.g., with JSDoc or Doxygen) can eliminate the need for redundant external docs while staying up-to-date.
Documentation as Code: Store docs in the same repository as your code, so updates to the codebase can include corresponding documentation changes in the same pull request.

Think of your docs as part of your code—keep them fresh, versioned, and just as important. Here’s how to make that happen without overcomplicating things. For example, one team at a fast-scaling startup tied their API documentation updates to their CI/CD pipeline, ensuring every change in the codebase automatically triggered a doc update. This simple integration reduced developer confusion and boosted trust in the documentation.

Create Feedback Loops

Good documentation evolves alongside your codebase. The best way to ensure this happens? Bake feedback into your team’s workflows.

Did you read the memo?

Practical Feedback Loops

Pull Request Templates: Add a simple checklist item like: “Did you update the documentation?”
Docs Reviews: Treat documentation like code—make it part of your review process.
Onboarding and Bug Reports: Turn onboarding frustrations and bug hunts into actionable improvements for your documentation.

Feedback isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s how you keep documentation alive and relevant. Whether it’s addressing gaps uncovered during onboarding or refining processes identified in bug reports, feedback ensures your docs stay in sync with reality.

Make It Frictionless

Quick Wins to Get Started

Document one tricky setup step that frequently trips up teammates.
Create a simple checklist for updating documentation alongside code changes.
Use feedback from a recent onboarding session to identify and fix gaps in your docs.

When you start small, it’s easier to show the value of documentation—even in teams that don’t traditionally prioritize it.

Let’s be real: developers are busy. If updating documentation feels like a chore, it’s just not going to happen. The trick is to make the process so simple, they barely notice they’re doing it.

Tips to Reduce Friction

Use Templates: Provide clear, reusable templates for setup guides, API docs, and troubleshooting. Consistency saves time.
Lower the Barrier to Entry: While we advocate for Markdown in your repo, use what works for your team—whether that’s Notion, Confluence, or even (gasp) Google Docs.
Automate Whenever Possible: For example, CI pipelines can verify that API docs match the current codebase.

Streamlining the process means more frequent updates and fewer bottlenecks.

How many hours is your team wasting this week because of outdated docs? Multiply that over a year—still think it’s not worth the time?

Foster a Culture of Documentation

Documentation isn’t just a task—it’s a mindset that starts with leadership. As a tech lead or manager, you have the power to build a culture that values clarity and efficiency. Show your team that investing in documentation saves time, reduces errors, and builds trust across projects. Teams that value high-quality documentation bake it into their culture.

Ways to Foster a Documentation-First Culture

Celebrate Good Docs: Highlight great examples during retrospectives or team meetings.
Lead by Example: Senior developers should prioritize documentation and show why it matters.
Build Accountability: Make documentation a deliverable in every project, on par with shipping features.

Good documentation isn’t just about processes—it’s about creating a team that values clarity and efficiency.

Conclusion

Documentation will always be a moving target, but with the right strategies, it can be a catalyst instead of an obstacle. Start small: review your team’s onboarding guide this week. Ask yourself, “If I were new here, would this save me time?” If not, rewrite it. The effort you put in now will save your team countless hours later.

Documentation doesn’t just serve your current team—it’s a gift to your future self, your new hires, and your entire codebase. Picture a new hire confidently navigating their first project because of clear, up-to-date guides, or a seasoned developer solving a production issue in minutes, not hours. That’s the transformative power of good documentation. Imagine revisiting that onboarding guide a year later and realizing it’s still saving time and headaches for every new team member. That’s the power of doing it right. Let’s stop treating it as a chore and start treating it as the productivity multiplier it is. Your team’s productivity depends on it.

But hey, don't trust me. Trust the developer who just joined the company and asked you questions that weren't in the docs. Who knows — maybe that developer is you.