Thrilled to have been chosen as one of the speakers at the Shift conference happening on the 18th and 19th September, 2023 in Zadar, Croatia.

I have prepared a talk that is close to my heart. I have already talked about it at other conferences, which always led to amazing discussions with developers and documentarians I met along the way. The talk is about the docs-as-code approach and how to strap it effectively into a developer cycle so that developers and technical content creators can collaborate under one process.

The talk opens with me describing the problem with the traditional content review. It then explains the core concepts of the docs-as-code approach so that the audience feels familiar with it. The second half lists the core concepts of the docs-as-code peer review and how to perform it as part of a developer cycle.

Here are some key takeaways from the talk and the resources for further education:

  • The tooling system limits the traditional content review process. It either requires special software or is constrained by the license requirements. As such, it requires a specific process adapted to its specific needs.

  • For a CMS, the docs-as-code approach should incorporate a git-based product to mirror how developers work with code. For simplicity of use, I suggest a branch-based git workflow.

  • The docs-as-code peer review is based on a traditional code peer review. It is built on a foundation of version control. It uses code review tools and encourages multiple reviewers to share their feedback, not just one SME (Subject Matter Expert).

  • The documentation cycle can and should run parallel to the developer cycle, as both use similar life cycles.

And here’s the slide deck I will use during my talk:

Why docs-as-code peer review should be part of your dev cycle

Hope to see you at my talk!