User:Pavithraes/Sandbox/Technical documentation prioritization

Overview
The Documentation project on Phabricator is used to track tasks involving technical documentation across Wikimedia spaces.

A set of guidelines have been outlined to help improve the process of categorization and prioritization of these tasks.

Filing a technical documentation request
Requests for improvements, new technical documentation and issues with automated documentation can be filed using Wikimedia's Phabricator instance in the #documentation project.

Ticket Content
A complete and unambiguous description of tasks is the foundation of effective task tracking. Here are a few points to keep in mind while filing a technical documentation request.

For existing docs:


 * Clearly describe the problem. The problem could be wrong information, missing steps, obsolete data, interface changes, etc.
 * Specify the exact location of the problem. You could provide links or point to the exact section that needs work.
 * State the information required to complete/improve the documentation.

For new documentation:


 * Define the purpose of the new document and the topics it should cover.
 * Try to mention a temporary location and title for the documentation.
 * Provide reference resources and a suitable genre for the documentation.

Additional points:


 * Suggest an author/assignee who can/will be working on the task.
 * If you have sufficient expertise in the domain, mention the level of knowledge, technologies, time and effort required to complete the task.
 * Add all necessary tags, like good-first-bug,  javascript,  visualEditor, etc.

Prioritizing
A technical documentation request becomes a priority in the following cases:
 * There are repeated requests from the community to create or improve existing documentation for X.
 * Another process will not work or cannot be completed if X is not documented correctly.
 * The steps outlined for a process are wrong, incomplete or obsolete.
 * The layout of a document makes it difficult or impossible to find important information.
 * X is automated and not updating properly.

Categorizing
The documentation project covers a wide range of requests and hence is categorized into the following boards:

Location
A lot of the technical documentation for Wikimedia project can be found at the following locations.

After filing a ticket
It is important to respect the culture and values of an open-source community while using Phabricator. Many people from many places with many different points of view and skill levels will be working together to surface issues and resolve them. Hence, make sure to be thoughtful about the people behind the tasks while interacting with it.

Changing status and priority
It takes time and energy to open a ticket, and equal energy should be spent in evaluating and prioritizing it. In Phabricator, a task is prioritized by assigning status and priority.

Following up
When you file a ticket in Phabricator, you are automatically subscribed to it and you will receive notifications when changes are made to the ticket. As the author of the task, it is your responsibility to:
 * Monitor the status of the task and the changes made to it.
 * Follow up on the task regularly.
 * Be open to feedback from the community and work with other collaborators to complete the task.

Continuous improvement
Technical documentation is never truly finished. There is always scope for improvement, update and additions. So, don't hesitate to reopen a closed Phabricator task. Make sure to communicate with the author and take responsibility for the proposed improvements.

Closing a ticket
Even though technical documentation is never fully complete, we can close Phabricator tasks when there is a consensus that the documentation is satisfactory and sufficient.

We can positively close tickets when:
 * The requested update or improvement has been made to existing technical documentation.
 * New documentation is created that meets the requirements of the technical documentation style guide and meet the specifications of the ticket.

Examples

 * Improving existing documentation: T203858
 * New documentation request: T157241

Help
For questions or help, contact wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org.