Speculative Documentation

Speculative documentation is a proactive approach to creating technical documentation before a feature or product is fully developed or released. It involves writing documentation based on design specifications, prototypes, or planned functionality to anticipate user needs and guide development. This methodology helps align teams, identify potential issues early, and ensure documentation is ready when the product launches.

Also known as: Proactive Documentation, Pre-release Documentation, Design-time Documentation, Spec Docs, Speculative Docs

Why learn Speculative Documentation?

Developers should use speculative documentation in agile or fast-paced development environments where features evolve rapidly, as it reduces last-minute documentation crunches and improves product quality. It is particularly valuable for API development, SDKs, or complex systems where early user feedback on documentation can inform design decisions and prevent costly rework post-release.

Learning Resources

• docs: Write the Docs Guide to Speculative Documentation
• article: Proactive vs. Reactive Documentation in Tech
• tutorial: Documentation as Code: Integrating Speculative Approaches
• video: YouTube: Speculative Documentation in Agile Teams
• book: Book: 'Docs for Developers' by Jared Bhatti et al.