The Importance of Technical Documentation and Resource Allocation for Developers

Today I saw a public‑account article titled "Programmer Must‑Have: Technical Documentation Writing Guide".

It reminded me of the series of trainings launched by Tencent PCG for all technical staff in 2022.

Part of the content inherits from the "Massive Way" series training proposed by a Tencent senior engineer more than ten years ago, and adds new material reflecting the current state and trends of software engineering and technology development.

This series of courses required a lot of effort to polish, and many courses were even listened to by Tencent VP Zeng Yu.

One particularly important course is "Technical Documentation Writing".

Technical documentation is also covered as a separate chapter in the book "Google Software Engineering".

However, in the domestic environment, is such content really useful?

Programmers might say: "Do I not know how to write documentation?"

But I don't even have time to write good code, how can I find time to write documentation?

Therefore, to get someone to do something within their capability, we first need to solve the resource problem.

You let programmers self‑test; do they have time?

You ask programmers to write good documentation; do they have time?

You ask programmers to write good documentation; who will review it?

Do they have time to perform high‑quality reviews?

Do programmers have time to revise documentation based on feedback?

If you think you have provided enough resources (such as time), have you confirmed that you have found the right person? Haha.

Maybe you should lower your expectations? Haha.