Documentation

Documentation is part of the product.

Every product we build or run comes with the documents another team would need to carry on without us. Here is the set, when each one is written, and our public documents.

The documentation set Public documents

Delivered with every product

Eight documents, written as the work happens.

Each document is written during the phase that produces it, and kept current for as long as we run the product.

The six phases

Discover
Exit and handover
What comes back to you, and how: code, data, store accounts and domain names. Written when the project starts, not when it ends.
Design
Data flows
What is sent where, processed by whom and kept how long. Decided and written down before launch.
Engineer
Architecture and data model
How the system is built, and each significant decision with its reason and the alternatives set aside.
Engineer
API reference
Versioned, authenticated endpoints, documented for the teams and tools that connect to them.
Deploy
Deployment procedure
How a release reaches production, and how it is rolled back.
Operate
Backup and restore
Encrypted backups and a written full-restore procedure, rehearsed rather than assumed.
Operate
Incident runbook
Who is alerted, what is checked first, how service is restored and how the incident is reported.
Operate
Monthly report
Availability, incidents, fixes shipped and the decisions waiting for you.