How To Write Technical Documentation: Steps and Examples

Technical documentation provides a valuable source of truth about how hardware and software work. These guides are often geared toward employees, although some resources also apply to end users. No matter the audience, writing technical documentation gives readers go-to documents for answering questions, troubleshooting errors and understanding products.

In this article, we’ll cover how to write technical documentation so you can create thorough guides.

What’s Technical Documentation?

Technical documentation is a collection of specifications and instructions about hardware or software products. Users, developers and engineers reference it whenever they need to learn the technical details of how something works. For example, developers might check software documentation to learn how to access an application programming interface (API).

You can publish technical documents on many platforms, though most teams opt for a knowledge base or shared cloud folder. These interfaces provide helpful functionalities like gathering feedback, adding quick updates and embedding visuals. But if you’re looking to share the information with external users, creating an online help center or PDF download may be the best option.

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The Importance of Technical Documentation

Writing technical documentation for the tools your team uses daily helps workers maintain a consistent, thorough understanding of each product. These guides are crucial resources that provide all the information employees need so they can spend less time looking for answers and more time working efficiently.

Without detailed technical documentation, team members could spend hours reviewing outdated documents that provide unhelpful answers or incorrect instructions. This might lead to critical mistakes like altering necessary settings or introducing broken code. And major issues waste employees’ time, including the system administrators who have to fix them.

Workers aren’t the only ones who need access to technical details — explaining a product to end users is also important. Often, customers will reference guides to troubleshoot issues, check for updates or learn about available integrations. If people don’t have this information on hand, they may become frustrated and stop using the system altogether.

Examples of Technical Documents (+ Free Templates)

There’s a wide variety of technical documents available — here are some your team and customers might need.

Software Documentation

Software documentation is a broad term that applies to instructions about using an application. User manuals and installation guides are common examples of software documentation. But when guides cover more complex topics like performance specifications or configuration instructions, they become technical documentation.

This software user guide template is an example of documentation you could use for technical or nontechnical purposes. Headings include: 

• Getting started.
• Features and functionality.
• Troubleshooting.
• FAQs.
• Glossary.
• Conclusion.
• Appendices.

Release Requirements

Release requirements documents detail the criteria a project must meet before launch. Ideally, they’ll include due dates for meeting those milestones. For example, you could use this release requirements template to plan a project or describe a proposed product’s functionality. Headings include: 

• Overview.
• Team.
• Strategic alignment.
• Personas.
• Features.
• Milestones.
• Dependencies.
• Notes.

Process Documentation

Process documentation templates bridge the gap between tools to outline the most efficient workflow. Often, teams will use them to describe tasks that require several tools, such as updating a knowledge base or interacting with an API. Headings include: 

• Process title.
• Process overview.
• Process steps.
• Inputs.
• Outputs.
• Roles and responsibilities.
• Tools and resources.
• Quality control.
• Challenges and risks.
• Continuous improvement.

API Documentation

API documentation is the go-to technical documentation for software developers, since every API they interact with uses unique methods, functions and objects. This IT documentation template is a great starting point because it contains a product overview along with preformatted instructions you could use to explain API integration. Headings include: 

• Product overview.
• Objectives.
• Phases.

Troubleshooting Guides

A troubleshooting guide focuses on one particular use case for technical documentation: diagnosing and solving common errors. It’s a handy resource that developers, engineers or users can reference when encountering problems they can’t solve independently. This troubleshooting guide template is tailored to this use case, with sections for listing errors, potential causes and intended solutions. Headings include: 

• Title.
• Problem.
• Errors/Cause.
• Solutions.
• Outcome.
• Links.
• Conclusion.
• Further reading.

How To Write Technical Documentation: 7 Steps

The process you’ll follow to write tech documentation may change based on what you’re documenting. But the following is an efficient approach you can adapt as needed.

1. Pick a Template

Select a documentation template that suits your purposes. Several are available in the Scribe Gallery for typical use cases. A technical documentation template should include at least the following three main parts:

• Specifications: A space to describe a product's hardware or software details, such as system requirements, processing speed or security features.
• Instructions: Steps for performing common processes like installation or debugging.
• Troubleshooting: Solutions to common errors readers could encounter while following the instructions.
  

2. Define Your Audience

Decide whether you’re writing an internal or external document, and narrow down your intended audience from there. This helps you include all the necessary sections for each reader and include terms they’ll understand. 

If you have multiple audiences, either create separate documents for each or define them with concise terms, like “third-party software developers,” “contracted technical writers” or “internal architecture engineers.” Use these sections to address each reader’s unique needs.

3. Research Topics

Talk to your intended audience to see how they’ll use your guide. Look for crucial steps where readers must reference specifications, follow a consistent process or troubleshoot potential errors. Additionally, check competitor resources to see what information they’ve provided in similar guides. Create new sections in your template for each topic, and draft content using what you’ve learned so far.

4. Test and Refine

Test your instructions and troubleshooting tips to ensure they work as intended, and use that experience to refine what you’ve written. To save you valuable time and effort, let Scribe automatically generate text and capture screenshots as you walk through these processes. 

5. Add Context

Now that you’ve written the most essential parts of your technical documentation, fill in any additional sections of your template that add valuable context. FAQs, a list of stakeholders and helpful visuals are all valuable additions. Keep it concise to avoid adding unnecessary bulk to the document. 

6. Publish

Add your completed documents to a shared cloud folder, or export them to an online knowledge base. Check that your chosen platform’s access controls let necessary readers use the resource. If possible, create groups so new members can automatically gain access as they join relevant teams.

If you’re making guides for customers, launch a help center page on your website to make your documentation easily accessible.

7. Maintain Docs

Establish a process for updating guides as processes or tools change. If your technical documentation covers software your team develops, add a step to their workflow that involves reviewing the docs to make any necessary updates. Otherwise, regularly check patch notes and update logs to detect changes that necessitate editing your resources. You can also create a schedule and review each guide at specific intervals to keep them all current.

Technical Documentation Do’s and Don’ts

As you complete the above process, keep the following technical documentation best practices in mind.

Do:

• Keep it concise and actionable: Adding practical context is great, but don’t add so much that the instructions get lost.
• Consider your platform: Use any tools your intended platform offers to enhance your documentation. For example, if you’re publishing to an online knowledge base, remember that you can embed Scribes to provide process instructions.
• Listen to your audience: Gather feedback from readers and consider it carefully. They use the documentation daily, so their perspective is incredibly valuable.
• Leverage automation: Take advantage of automation tools that streamline your documentation process wherever possible. Scribe, for example, can automatically generate step-by-step guides to include in your documentation.

Don’t:

• Rush the process: Invest the time it takes to fully understand what you’re documenting. Making mistakes will only cost you more time when you revisit the documents to correct them later.
• Assume anything: Verify every specification, process and troubleshooting technique you document for accuracy. Providing incorrect information will erode readers’ trust in the documentation when they discover flaws.
• Use jargon or unclear language: Explain acronyms and key terms in a glossary to establish a baseline vocabulary for anything technical. Then, stick to that vocabulary and use it consistently, avoiding jargon or shorthand that could confuse the reader.

Create Scalable Technical Documentation With Scribe

These processes and guidelines will help you write technical documentation that’s useful and easy to maintain. To further enhance your approach, use an automation tool like Scribe to streamline your documentation process. 

Scribe automatically generates instructions and captures screenshots, significantly reducing the time it takes to write technical documentation. Try it out for free or schedule a demo to discover how Scribe helps teams create thorough, scalable process documents faster.