Good Documentation Accelerates Adoption & Participation
Linux Foundation Training and Certification has launched two, new, free courses to help open source developers, project managers and engineers improve their documentation skills. Strong open source documentation makes projects more accessible, accelerates adoption and encourages community participation.
“All open source projects can benefit from improved documentation to lower the barrier to contribution,” said Chris Aniszczyk, CTO, CNCF. “We hope these courses improve the state of open source technical documentation skills across the world so we can continue to make open source projects friendlier for contribution.”
“Documentation is key to open source project success, but too few IT professionals devote the time,” said Clyde Seepersad, SVP, General Manager, Training & Certification, Linux Foundation. “These courses are designed to help IT professionals in particular gain confidence while finding easier ways to build solid project documentation that engages with consumers and contributors.”
Open Source Technical Documentation Essentials (LFC111) emphasizes the importance of good documentation to drive community engagement. The course teaches:
- How technical communication excellence:
- Accelerates adoption
- Reduces support costs
- Increases customer satisfaction and retention
- Improves engineering efficiency
- Fosters growth of vibrant open source communities
- How effective documentation helps users use your software and API successfully
- What types of documents capture interest and bring users quickly up to speed
- How to evaluate the effectiveness of your existing documentation
- How to improve your documentation
Creating Effective Documentation for Developers (LFC112) focuses on creating effective documentation with an emphasis on products with an API. Participants will learn:
- How an API reference differs from other types of documents
- What content belongs in an API reference
- How documentation can be automatically generated from source code and specifications
- How to improve the effectiveness of generated documentation
- How software engineers and professional writers/editors can collaborate
Each course consists of three to four hours of content. Those that successfully complete each course will receive a digital badge and certificate of completion.
