Play 23 - Develop processes for maintaining documentation

#documentation #rolesandpermissions

Technical play for data stewards: Develop processes for maintaining documentation.

The most useful #documentation isn’t only created once, but rather updated regularly. Keeping documentation up-to-date ensures that everyone has access to the latest, most accurate information, reducing errors and confusion.

  1. Assign responsibility for maintaining documentation to specific team members or roles.
  2. Define a review cycle (e.g., quarterly or semi-annual) to ensure the documentation remains accurate and relevant.
  3. Create a structured process for updates, including a checklist for content changes, stakeholder reviews, and approvals.
  4. Ensure that folder and file nesting is consistent and that file naming conventions are followed.
  5. Use collaborative tools (e.g., a dedicated documentation platform like GitBook, or Google Docs) to track contributions.
  6. Share the updated documentation with users and archive older versions as needed.

🌱 Each play stems from a takeaway from an case study, workshop, or other learning source.

Takeaway: Documentation underlies effective collaborative data governance and institutional knowledge.
#Documentation about an organization’s data can include information on provenance, metadata and other contextual information, how decisions are made, the methodology behind collection, and data access and use conditions. These types of documentation ensure that data can be understood and utilized by any user. Many organizations have an understanding of these aspects, but haven’t made them explicit or published them alongside the data itself. Documentation allows for stewards’ or organizational knowledge to be safeguarded and transparent for the public, and also provides an avenue to examine how these aspects have changed over time.

Source: Community Data Playbook (Full report)