Are you ready to level up your docs with docs-as-code?

Presentation
Level up your technical communication

20. September
14:35 - 15:20 PM (CEST)
Titanium

finished

Petra Herbst
- viesure Innovation Center GmbH

In these days, almost everyone in the tech docs community has heard about docs-as-code or docs-like-code, but what exactly are these? What differentiates this way of producing documentation from other ways and tools? How can they be implemented? What knowledge is needed? What are the advantages and disadvantages? Can everyone do this? What does this look like in real life?

Takeaways

You'll learn more about the main components of docs-as-code and how they can be used, who might need them, who doesn't, what the advantages and disadvantages are and how I use them in my everyday work life.

Prior knowledge

Being familiar with software development processes and markdown files used in software documentation

Speaker

Petra Herbst

viesure Innovation Center GmbH

Show profile

Biography

During the last years of my studies of transcultural communication, I created a paid terminology database at Hyperwave software for my diploma thesis and then started working there as translation coordinator and soon after also as technical writer.

Nine years later, I was offered a unique opportunity as head of department at Unycom software to create a documentation stack from scratch where I could not only select my team, but also the tools and processes for writing the docs such as online help and Administrators guides.

Then in 2016, I got a call from my former boss (Hyperwave) to start as coordinator for technical documentation at Bearing Point and there, I began to automate docs on a large scale using Asciidoctor in combination with Jenkins automation.

In 2019, I was offered another exceptional job at Travis CI where I worked exclusively with docs-as-code on GitHub in combination with Markdown files and Jekyll.

Then finally in 2020, I started working at a corporate startup aka innovation center in Vienna where I was hired for my expertise in docsa-as-code and API documentation. Since starting there, I could try out many different tools and ways of writing docs. I created a Developer Portal for accessing API documentation by using state-of-the-art technology such as Google Apigee, redocly and GitLab.

In parallel, I've worked as a lecturer at FH Joanneum Graz (in the field of technical documentation and docs-as-code and just did a hands-on workshop in November 2022 using GitHub and the readthedocs.io tutorial so that the students do not only hear the theory about docs-as-code, but experience on how to work with them.

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