Agile teams typically use the bare minimum of documentation, but it's still an important part of their development process. Unlike traditional frameworks, Agile documentation is more iterative and less detailed, evolving as the project's goals and processes change.

This article will describe the unique way Agile documentation takes shape throughout the software development process.

What’s Agile Documentation?

Agile documentation is the set of resources used to support an Agile approach to software development. In this project management style, teams complete tasks in short cycles called sprints. They’ll finish an assignment, receive feedback on it and adjust as needed before restarting the process with a new set of deliverables. This approach is more flexible than other management styles because it allows teams to iterate throughout the project rather than making bulk changes at the end.

But this versatility presents a problem for documentation — since Agile tasks and goals are constantly changing, it’s difficult to create written resources that are relevant for very long. And generating detailed documentation contradicts the Agile manifesto, which values “Working software over comprehensive documentation.” That doesn’t mean you avoid it altogether, but it does mean your Agile documents should be lightweight and adaptable.

For example, it’s typical to begin the software development process with a detailed workback schedule that outlines everything stakeholders will do throughout the project. But the Agile approach avoids that level of detail because rigid requirements don’t allow teams to easily respond to feedback and adapt their plans. Instead, documentation for an Agile project outlines basic milestones but leaves the planning of how and when to achieve them up to the team.

Importance of Documentation in Agile Development

Sprints are typically only one or two weeks long, and working within such fast-paced timelines requires collaboration and agility. So, having documentation that changes along with the project is an essential part of an effective sprint. 

Here are some of the top benefits of creating these resources.

Encourages Communication

While working in an Agile team, you’ll sometimes need to pivot rapidly. If not managed properly, this can cause confusion, disrupt workflows or delay progress. Documentation lays out your progress on tasks so they’re easy to revisit or hand off to someone else, reducing the need for time-consuming meetings and retraining.

Promotes Easy Maintenance and Flexibility

Because of the nature of the Agile workflow, documents are lightweight and never set in stone. Agile teams rarely create an official knowledge base because it would take too long to update. Instead, you’ll find resources in collaborative platforms where everyone can quickly edit the documents to reflect the most recent developments.

Supports Planning

Agile teams regard long-term plans as wasteful, since strategies usually change significantly by the time people follow through on them. Instead, they use sprint planning meetings to set short-term action outlines. Documents like product roadmaps and meeting agendas support these proposals by helping teams quickly set goals and follow through on them.

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Types of Agile Documents

Here’s how an Agile development team would approach some typical documentation types.

Sprint Prep and Retrospectives

Sprint preps and retrospectives are essentially meeting agendas. In a sprint prep document, you identify the tasks you intend to complete during an upcoming cycle. And in a retrospective, you assess whether you achieved those goals. What you learn from a debrief then feeds into your next prep, and so on.

Requirements Document

A requirements document outlines the acceptance criteria you’ll use to assess whether a task is finished. For example, the acceptance criteria for a new software feature might include:

• Peer review completed.
• All merge conflicts resolved.
• Tested in a staging environment.
• Backup created.

Technical Documentation

Technical documentation is typically very detailed and time-consuming to update. To avoid wasting resources, Agile teams write simple specifications and manuals as they go, rarely revisiting or updating them. They keep everything in drafts until the end of the project when they’ll finally smooth everything out in a new sprint dedicated to that effort.

Critical Elements To Include in Agile Documentation

Though most Agile documents avoid a lot of details, here are a few elements they should all contain.

Project Scope

Agile projects break everything into small, attainable tasks, keeping the scope of every milestone as narrow as possible. In this way, developers can efficiently drive toward a minimum viable product. So, every document should include a section outlining the scope of what it describes and explaining how that fits into the team’s larger goals.

User Stories

User stories gather input from potential customers and other stakeholders to describe what they need from a product. These stories provide critical context for developers, helping them understand the purpose behind each task. They should be included in any document that sets expectations for the product, such as requirements or specifications. This ensures that developers can see how their work contributes to creating the end-user experience the team is aiming for.

Acceptance Criteria

When you’re creating a document that outlines milestones, specify the criteria developers must meet before considering a task complete. Acceptance criteria doesn’t need to be highly detailed, but it should present concise, easy-to-interpret thresholds, such as “manager signoff acquired” or “zero errors present.”

Product Backlog

A product backlog is a list of features and tasks developers haven’t started working on yet. You typically capture it in a separate document or a scrum board where you organize and assign tasks. Every Agile document should link to the backlog so team members can easily see how their task fits into the larger project and prepare for upcoming assignments.

6 Best Practices for Agile Documentation

Here are six best practices you should remember when creating documentation for an Agile project.

1. Use a Style Guide

Create a style guide so everyone’s documents have compatible formatting and word choices, making it significantly easier to merge each resource at the project’s end. You can create your own style guide or use an industry standard like Google’s Developer Documentation Style Guide or the Apple Style Guide.

2. Keep It Simple

Remember that anything you write will likely become outdated as the project’s requirements and goals evolve. So, resist the temptation to write comprehensive process documentation or detailed specification lists. Instead, make simple outlines and drafts that are easier to update or rewrite when the time comes.

3. Look for Automation Opportunities

Agile prioritizes speed and versatility, and automation can achieve both. Look for places to use automation tools that streamline the documentation process. For example, Scribe documents processes automatically by capturing screenshots and generating instructions. That’ll significantly reduce the time you spend writing and rewriting resources.

4. Create It Collaboratively as a Team

Don’t leave documentation up to one or two people, as this can be overwhelming and lead to information silos. Instead, everyone should write the relevant documentation as they develop and design the software. At the end of the project, you can assemble everything at once and comb through it together. 

5. Think Ahead

When writing documentation for an Agile project, anticipate future updates and audiences. Use placeholders for areas you'll revisit and clearly label known issues and dependencies for future readers. This prevents you from having to reexamine everything when it’s time to make updates.

6. Include Documentation in Sprint Planning

Mention your documentation efforts in sprint planning and retrospective meetings. That way, your documentation remains a consistent part of the conversation. Add links to your documents to meeting agendas and share snippets in team chats so the information is accessible.

Automate Your Documentation Process With Scribe

Like the methodology itself, Agile documentation relies on carefully scoping your goals to suit your work. It also requires maximizing time spent on tasks and minimizing time spent on planning. Thankfully, Scribe can help with both.

With Scribe, you can effortlessly generate instructions by walking through the process yourself. The app automatically captures screenshots and generates instructions for you. And our AI-powered document generator can rapidly create several documents, such as templates, meeting agendas and project proposals.

Sprint toward your finished project with Scribe.