Documentation Prioritization

Documentation prioritization determines which documentation work gets done first given limited capacity. Prioritization ensures documentation effort addresses the most impactful needs. Without explicit prioritization, documentation work may address less important needs while critical gaps remain.

What Is Documentation Prioritization

Documentation prioritization is the process of ordering documentation work by importance. This ordering determines what gets worked on when capacity is available. Prioritization considers factors like user impact, strategic alignment, effort required, and dependencies.

Prioritization acknowledges that documentation needs exceed capacity. Not everything can be done immediately, and some things may never be done. Explicit prioritization makes these tradeoffs visible and ensures they reflect actual priorities rather than arbitrary ordering.

How Documentation Prioritization Works

Prioritization frameworks provide consistent criteria for ordering work. Common factors include user impact measuring how many users benefit and how significantly, strategic alignment with organizational and design system goals, effort required for completion, and urgency from time-sensitive needs.

Scoring systems translate factors into comparable values. Each factor receives a score, and scores combine into overall priority rankings. Weighted scoring allows different factor importance. Frameworks like RICE (Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort) or MoSCoW (Must, Should, Could, Won’t) provide established prioritization approaches.

Regular prioritization review ensures rankings stay current. New information may change factor assessments. Completed work shifts what remains highest priority. Changing organizational priorities affect strategic alignment. Periodic review keeps prioritization accurate.

Key Considerations

• Prioritization criteria should be explicit and consistently applied
• Multiple factors should be considered rather than single-factor decisions
• Regular review keeps prioritization current with changing conditions
• Transparency about prioritization decisions builds understanding and buy-in

Common Questions

How do teams handle urgent requests that conflict with existing priorities?

Urgent requests require evaluation against existing priorities. Some requests genuinely warrant priority elevation, such as documentation blocking major releases. Others feel urgent but are not more important than current priorities. Teams should have processes for evaluating urgency claims and criteria for legitimate priority changes. Consistently yielding to urgent requests undermines prioritization value.

How do teams balance new documentation with improving existing documentation?

Balancing new and improvement work requires explicit allocation. Some teams allocate percentages, such as sixty percent for new documentation and forty percent for improvements. Others prioritize all work together regardless of type, letting impact drive allocation. The approach depends on current documentation state and organizational priorities. Documentation with many gaps may need more new content while documentation with accuracy problems may need more improvement work.

Summary

Documentation prioritization orders work to ensure limited capacity addresses the most important needs. Explicit criteria, scoring frameworks, and regular review enable effective prioritization. Transparent prioritization processes build understanding of why certain work happens before other work.