Workflows to support Technical Documentation Writers

[Erin-Todd Hansen]

Would anyone be willing to share how they've integrated their technical writers into JIRA work?  We are a software shop and deploy small updates weekly (usually via feature flippers) and then big releases quarterly.  We've just started using JIRA and Confluence and expect to not use Confluence for Technical Documentation based on the needs of our clients.  So we are just interested in the workflows and fields you using for supporting your technical writers in doing their job.  Any advice or experiences you're willing to share.

Thanks.  

[Paz]

Tech Writer here! 

I've used JIRA in a variety of ways, but I find what is most important is that documentation is treated as something that happens alongside development, not as something that starts once development of a feature is done.

The simplest way to integrate documentation into a JIRA workflow is by creating a "documentation" component within the JIRA project. Any work that needs to be done for a feature, suggestions for improvement, or bugs can get labeled with the "documentation" component and queued that way to be worked on.

This method is probably least disruptive to the development process and maintains visibility of documentation work. Make the tech writer the component lead for that as well.

You can always get more complex if needed, by adding workflow steps to always include documenting a feature. Or you could create an issue type for documentation. That's the beauty of JIRA, you can customize just about anything. But using a new component is quick, easy, and effective. 

[GabrielleJ]

In one of our projects, we create a Sub-Task called "Documentation" so that we know that a particular Story needs a documentation to be created in our Confluence instance.

+1 on John Paz's answer.