Document Development Life-Cycle (DDLC)
The content development formula
Practical Magic
How do experienced technical writers prepare and deliver their documentation on time and on point? Is there some magical formula known only to the most sanctified content development mavens?
Well, yes and no. Yes, there is a magical formula, and no, it’s not a secret. The Document Development Life Cycle (DDLC) process is a time-tested formula for developing documentation systematically and sequentially within a predetermined structure. This formula helps ensure the development of well-defined, professional content designed to meet end-user needs.
With this simple but potent six-step DDLC process, you too can eliminate repetition while greatly improving your productivity.
DDLC comprises the following phases:
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Requirements Analysis
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Design
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Developing the content
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Review
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Release
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Maintenance
Let’s break these phases down.
Requirements Analysis
Preparation is key – you’ve heard this a million times. Nowhere does it hold more true than in document development. Technical writers must have a careful plan for their content, guided by product requirements, available tools, audience , SME knowledge, and industry best practices. At the Requirements Analysis stage, you try to discover any learning gaps and devise strategies to overcome them. You can also nail down the best format and delivery media for the document. This is also the point at which stakeholders agree that sign-off at the conclusion of the Review phase completes content development and makes it ready for release.
It is vital that you build good communications channels with your SMEs to ensure a smooth and constant flow of information. Whenever there’s an opportunity to meet with your SMEs in person, take it. A physical chat, or a phone call can help build rapport with your SMEs, letting you tease out the various aspects of the product or feature that you need to grasp. A good understanding of each other’s methods and motivations helps get buy-in from all parties, with little room for misunderstandings and disagreements.
Design
Now that you have finished your product or feature analysis, you can start to collect all relevant information for the document and create the document outline. Consider employing a topic-based authoring approach for this process. For those not familiar with topic-based authoring, in a nutshell, it is a modular approach to content creation where content is chunked into meaningful topics you can combine and reuse in different contexts. Topic-based authoring is less linear than traditional book-oriented or narrative content and has become very popular due to the flexibility it affords for publishing across a multitude of media and languages.
At the Design stage, you can start using an agreed-upon style guide, develop templates and master pages, decide on design elements like font size and styles, lists, tables, numbering, and begin to visualize optimal placement of media (video/static images, etc.). Once your outline is in place, you can develop draft tables of contents (TOCs) for each document set.
Now is the time to look at your content management strategy and decide upon a content management system (CMS) that aligns with your goals. Keep ease of localization, translation, and ongoing maintenance at the forefront of your thinking as you make this choice. Some examples of content management systems include:
Remember, technical writing is becoming a mixed media discipline. While design aesthetics have always been an important part of the technical writer’s tool kit, now more than ever, our end users expect visually engaging content that is both accessible and agreeable to look at. Take some time to look into the best media authoring and editing tools out there and become adept at incorporating interesting visuals for the text-weary reader. Some options we like include:
- Camtasia
- Canva
- Corel VideoStudio and Corel PaintShop Pro
- GIMP
- Adobe Photoshop
- Affinity Photo
- Lightworks
- Adobe Premiere pro
Do your research and decide which option is the best fit for your purpose and your budget.
Content Development
Once you prepare a draft TOC, you can start populating the content. This is the meatiest phase of the DDLC process.
As you write, it is imperative that you continue to ask questions of your SMEs and end users, as well as your other team members and stakeholders. Clearing up any lingering issues at this stage drastically reduces the technical and editorial time required in the Review phase.
Remember, to maintain that healthy SME/stakeholder relationship we have spoken about, you must ensure that you don’t waste yours or their time at this important phase of the development life-cycle. Organize your questions ahead of time and schedule all calls and meetings.
Review
Once the first draft is complete, you move on to the Review phase. Your content will now go through a technical, editorial, and self-review process.
The review process unfolds as follows:
Self Review. As obvious as it sounds, reviewing your own work for errors and omissions is a crucial step in ensuring the quality of your work. Even in the most informationally rich, robust documentation, simple spelling or grammar errors are enough to diminish the value of your work. At Docforce, we recommend using an editing checklist to guide you through this step. Without a checklist, it is very easy to overlook errors in your own work – not seeing the forest for the trees and all that.
Technical Review. Now your SMEs see your content for the first time. Your SME is supposed to review the technical content in your document. They should not be looking at language and grammar; technical accuracy and clarity of message are the primary touch-points here.
Editorial Review. At this stage, trained technical writers/editors peer-review your content, using audience requirements as a benchmark. It is the final polish, where trained eyes look for errors in grammar, language, structure, voice, content flow, and visuals.
Usually, the editing phase encompasses a minimum of two technical reviews and one editorial review, though this may vary from team to team. Keep an open mind about the feedback you receive during this review phase. Don’t be too precious about your content; a good team wants to enrich your documentation. View any suggestions or corrections as a means to strengthen your documentation and enhance your own reputation. Constructive feedback is a great way to achieve professional growth, embrace it!
This phase ends when the key stakeholders sign off on the documents for release.
Release
Once the review phase is complete, your documentation is ready to publish in whatever format you and your team have chosen (hard copy/digital). You provide the release team with the path to the documents so they can integrate your content into the Bill of Material (BoM). You may also be asked to prepare a lessons learned document. This is the most exciting phase of the DDLC process, where you get to watch your fully developed content flee the nest and reach its target audience. You may get a little teary-eyed – this is normal.
Maintenance
Not so fast!
Just because you successfully released your content does not mean you can wash your hands of it.
It is now your ongoing responsibility to ensure that this content remains current and relevant, forevermore!
At Docforce, we find a quarterly check-in really useful to assess the continued efficacy of our documentation. You may find that a bi-annual review is sufficient for your purposes, that’s totally your call.
You can also use these content revisits as a time to critique the delivery medium of your documentation – should you move to another delivery platform? Is the online support framework up to task? Does your content require more multimedia inputs?
The Craft
So there you have it: DDLC, the magical formula for creating quality content every time.
The sequential, logical flow of the process makes it intuitive and adaptable for use with most forms of documentation. You gain a deeper understanding of the product or feature you’re documenting,, a strong team ethic, and a commitment to continuous peer and self-review. Outcomes include structured, consistent documentation that best fits your users needs. Think of DDLC as a virtual marauders map to content development efficacy.
Now that you have the magical incantation, ascendio! Go out there and enchant your audience.