Nordic Denmark Program Detail

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Getting some hands-on experience with docs-as-code

  • Workshop
  • Intelligent Content Creation and Delivery
  • 21. September
  • 09:00 - 10:30 AM (CEST)
  • Titanium
  • finished
  • Petra Herbst

    Petra Herbst

    • viesure innovation center gmbh

Contents

I will do a workshop using GitHub and the readthedocs.io tutorial so that everyone who is willing to bring their laptops and create a GitHub account BEFORE the workshop can gain some hands-on experiences with docs-as-code in a technical writers' team. This subject is especially valuable for people working in software companies as they might already be familiar with version control systems and markdown files.

Takeaways

You will experience how to use developer tools such as GitHub for writing documentation. You will add and edit docs and create pull requests for your docs, merge and push your changes exactly as in software development processes.

Prior knowledge

Everyone working or having experience in the field of technical documentation in software companies can participate in this workshop. Even if you have no idea about the tools mentioned above, you can prepare for this workshop by informing yourself about the tools used and give it a try.

If some people are not familiar at all with processes in software development departments and just want to "watch", we might also work in pairs.

Speaker

Petra Herbst

Petra Herbst

  • viesure innovation center gmbh
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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