Presentation¶
Slide 1 - Title Slide¶
A Unified Documentation Standard¶
Improving Clarity, Collaboration and Operational Efficiency¶
Presenter: Aaron Ardiri
Slide 2 - The Documentation Problem¶
Why a Documentation Strategy Matters Right Now¶
- Multiple internal companies produce software and capabilities
- Knowledge is decentralized across teams and tools
- Documentation varies in format, depth, and quality
- Hard to discover information and understand systems
- Results in inefficiency, rework, and increased operational risk
Slide 3 - The Core Problem¶
Fragmented Knowledge, Hidden Costs¶
- Documentation lives across documents, repos, chats, and personal notes
- Independnt structure makes cross-team understanding difficult
- Onboarding requires tribal knowledge transfer
- Ownership and dependencies are unclear
- Teams unknowingly duplicate work that may already be done elsewhere
Slide 4 - What Needs to be Defined¶
What an Effective Documentation Strategy Must Deliver¶
- Consistent structure across all internal companies
- Clear ownership and accountability
- Documentation embedded in development workflows
- Discoverable and accessible across teams
- Tooling-agnostic, future-proof approach
Slide 5 - The Proposed Vision¶
A Unified, Markdown-First Documentation Standard¶
- Shared structure for all services
- Documentation-as-code: version-controlled and code-reviewed
- Diagrams-as-code for reproducible architecture visuals
- Lightweight governance focused on consistency
- Defined access levels for internal/external content
Slide 6 - Benefits for the Organization¶
Business & Engineering Benefits¶
- Faster onboarding
- Less duplicated effort
- Clearer ownership and accountability
- Improved operational readiness
- Easier cross-company collaboration
- Reduced risk when people leave
Slide 7 - What Documentation Will Contain¶
A Clear Standard for Every Service¶
- Service overview and purpose
- Ownership and responsibilities
- Integration points and dependencies
- Architecture and data flows
- Operational guides and runbooks
- Testing expectations
- ADRs capturing key decisions
Slide 8 - Example (High-Level)¶
Example: Customer Notification Service¶
- High-level service purpose
- Architecture illustration (UML/Mermaid)
- Key interactions and dependencies
- Operational expectations
- Decision history via ADRs
This is illustrative - actual depth varies by service.
Slide 9 - Governance & Ownership¶
Clear Ownership, Lightweight Governance¶
- Service teams own their documentation
- Architecture defines standards and expectations
- Platform/DevEx provides templates and tooling
- Documentation maturity reviewed periodically
- RACI clarifies responsibility
Slide 10 - Adoption Plan¶
Proposed Phased Rollout¶
- Phase 0: Deeper clarification of requirements
- Phase 1: Pilot with representative teams
- Phase 2: Standard for all new services
- Phase 3: Incremental backfill for existing services
- Phase 4: Continuous improvement and maturity tracking
Slide 11 - Risks & Mitigations¶
Adoption Risks - and How They’re Addressed¶
- “Extra work” → integrated into Definition of Done
- Documentation drift → updated in same PR as code
- Inconsistent adoption → templates + light governance
- Sensitive data → defined access levels
- Big-bang concerns → incremental rollout
Slide 12 - Next Steps¶
Next Steps¶
- Gather feedback from leadership and teams
- Finalize the documentation standard
- Build templates and scaffolding
- Initiate the Phase 1 pilot
- Adjust and refine based on real usage and adoption
Slide 13 - Closing¶
Documentation as a Strategic Asset¶
- Enables collaboration across internal companies
- Improves efficiency and clarity
- Reduces duplicated work and risk
- Supports scaling and onboarding
- Creates a shared understanding across the portfolio
Thank you.