---
title: "Documentation Framework"
tags: documentation framework technology teaching literature-notes
date: 2021-02-02 20:04:16
---

# Documentation Framework

There are 4 types of documentation
- Tutorials(Learning Oriented)
- How to guides(Problem Oriented)
- Explanations/Discussions(Understanding Oriented)
- Reference(Information Oriented)

![Documentation Grid](https://documentation.divio.com/_images/overview.png)

They must be kept distinct from each other - this will make it easier to maintain.

## Tutorials

Lessons that take the reader by hand thru a series of steps to complete a project.

- Learning by doing
- Getting started
- Inspiring Confidence
- Repeatability
- Immediate sense of achievement
- Concrete, not abstraction
- Minimum necessary explanation
- No distractions

## How to Guides

Guides that take the reader thru the steps required to solve a common problem.

- A series of steps
- A focus on the goal
- Addressing specific question
- No unnecessary explanation
- A little flexibility
- Practical usability over completeness
- Good naming

## Reference

Technical descriptions of the machinery and how to operate it.

- Structure
- Consistency
- Description
- Accuracy

## Explanations

Explanations that clarify and illuminate a particular topic. This takes a wider view.

- Giving context
- Explaining why
- Multiple examples, alternative approaches
- Making Connections
- No instructions or technical descriptions


If you have some parts of one section in another section, you are lowering the quality of the documentation.

[Source](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4vKPhjcMZg)

[More Information](https://documentation.divio.com/)




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### Tags
#documentation #framework #technology #teaching #literature-notes