Write It Down: Process Documentation from the Ground Up
summary
Process documentation lets different people reliably recreate work by recording exact steps, reasons and exceptions; examples show a whiteboard flowcharts session that untangles insurance roles so questions stop going to a manager, and choices like wiki versus static webpage mapped to contributor count and change frequency. Project data include 50 active volunteers with 65% never coded, so docs focus on click targets, jargon glossaries, proofed appendices and a maintenance cadence that actually reduces onboarding time.
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chapters (15)
- 0:00Intro
- 1:57What is process documentation
- 2:15What does it look like
- 3:30Why is it important
- 5:38Basics of documentation
- 8:33Generals of process documentation
- 13:20Best practices
- 15:11Use simpler language
- 17:02Make sure documents exist
- 22:37More insurance talk
- 24:37Jargon
- 26:33Scripts
- 29:43Why
- 30:37Talk to people
- 34:05Practice
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