An Agile Playbook for Technical Communicators: A Guide for Technical Communicators Working with Agile Teams

By Luke Pivac and Michael Moore

With the ever-growing demand for highly skilled professionals to work in cross-functional teams, it can be difficult navigating the workflow of Agile alone, as Technical Communicators often are. In this book we will explore what you need to know about Agile and highlight the benefits of adopting Agile in your everyday work life.

From being more effective when working with your team, to aligning your technical communication deliverables with your team’s sprint goals. Along the way we will explore how technical communication can open doors into a wide range of opportunities.

The book will also cover Agile best practices along with my own first-hand insights.

CORE CONEPTS
In An Agile Playbook for Technical Communicators, you will learn about the following:
- What Agile is, and the benefits of using it. Along with the pain points that may arise from time to time.
- The basic concepts of Agile.
- Features of a typical Agile workflow.
- How cross-functional teams work in Agile.
- How product and user documentation in Agile differs from the documents required by traditional methods.
- What the Agile Technical Communicator’s role is in Agile.
- Plus, tips on adding value as an “Agile” Technical Communicator.

What if you are not a Technical Communicator or Documentation Specialist?
As the Table of Contents shows, this book does cover many core Agile concepts that anyone new to Agile will find valuable when working with Agile Teams.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Agile Adapt
• Release date: Apr 10, 2022
• ISBN: 9780473624248

Book preview

An Agile Playbook for Technical Communicators

An Agile Playbook for Technical Communicators

A Guide for Technical Communicators Working with Agile Teams

Luke Pivac

This book is for sale at http://leanpub.com/agileplaybookfortechnicalcommunicators

This version was published on 2022-04-15

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© 2022 Luke Pivac

ISBN for EPUB version: 978-0-473-62424-8

ISBN for MOBI version: 978-0-473-62425-5

Thanks to Steve Moss for his dedication, support and belief in me - not only on helping me complete this book, but for being an awesome human being.

Thanks to Mike Moore for the fantastic artwork. I appreciate your support and professional integrity.

Finally thanks to my family for your patience, support and understanding with the many late nights of writing.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Getting Familiar with Agile Terms

The Difference between Agile and Scrum

Agile Concepts

The Problem with Waterfall

About the Agile Manifesto

Agile Values

Agile Principles

Benefits of the Agile approach

Pitfalls of the Agile Framework

The Agile Mindset

The Core Values of the Agile Mindset

Benefits of an Agile Mindset

Developing your Agile Mindset Skills

The Agile Mindset and the Team

What the Agile Mindset Means for the Agile Technical Communicator

Agile Frameworks

Describing Kanban

Differences between Kanban and Scrum

Describing Scrum

Scrum Roles

Scrum Events

Agile Documentation

Difference Between Product and User Documentation

Minimizing Documentation

Value Focused Lean Documentation Criteria

User Documentation Questions to Ask

CRUFT Formula

Just In Time documentation

Documenting With Your Team

Documentation Review Cycle

Challenges for Agile Technical Communicators

Key Takeaways from Agile Documentation

Documentation User Stories

Sub-task documentation to a User Story

Documentation to have its own User Story

Use User Stories to drive User Advocacy

Splitting User Stories

User Story Communication Tips when Working with Stakeholders

Tracking Documentation User Stories on a Task Board

Building Better Agile Relationships

Building Relationships

Working with Key Agile Roles

Working with the Product Owner

Working with the Scrum Master

Working with the Development Team

Tips on Being a Great Collaborator

Professional Integrity

Focus on Making your Job Easier

Find Your Role in the Scrum Team

Getting Past the Uncertainty

Collaborating With Your Team

Questions and Answers

Daily Challenges

Does Agile work?

Quality of the Scrum Master

Documenting Before the Sprint

Agile and BAU — How Does That Work?

Communities of Practice

Waterfall Inside a Sprint

Agile Solutions for Slow Document Review Feedback

Documents Overlapping Within Sprints

Next Steps

Summary

Future of Agile

Introduction

Working as a Technical Communicator can be challenging. Irrespective of working in a Waterfall project framework, or an Agile one. Organizations all over the world are moving towards a more rapid pace; planning, building, and executing faster than ever before. However, documentation practices are not. As a result, Technical Communicators are left wanting more. They are not getting the support they need from their leaders into the new ways of working that organizations are proposing.

The practices that had served Technical Communicators well in the past, are now fraught with difficulties of not fitting into the organization’s Agile transformation. Additionally, many people not familiar with Agile practices imply that Agile disregard documentation as an afterthought, or worse —it is not needed at all. This quandary has baffled many Technical Communicators working with digital products. Rest assured; this is not the case!

With the ever-growing demand for highly skilled professionals to work in cross-functional teams, it can be difficult navigating the workflow of Agile alone, as Agile Technical Communicators often are.

This book explores what you need to know about Agile and highlight the benefits of adopting Agile in your everyday working practices.

One of the core values of the Agile Manifesto states: "Working software over comprehensive documentation."

This principle argues that spending an enormous amount of time documenting the product for development is unnecessary and can cause delays in the project. I have experienced the pitfalls of not only traditional projects, but Agile ones too. This is what has driven me to author this book, from what I have learnt as an Agile Technical Communicator over ten years, to then becoming a Scrum Master.

This book is for any Technical Communicator who is not familiar with Agile; whether you are experienced in Waterfall or new to Agile altogether. This book explores a broad range of topics, from being more effective when collaborating with your team, to aligning your technical communication deliverables with your team’s goals.

I will cover of the Agile best practices along with my own insights.

An Agile Playbook for Technical Communicators will help extend your knowledge and skills in such areas as becoming part of an Agile team and navigating through any potential pitfalls to aligning your ways of working by using an Agile mindset.

In An Agile Playbook for Technical Communicators, you will learn about the following:

- What Agile is, and the benefits of using it. Along with the pain points that may arise from time to time.

- The basic concepts of Agile.

- Features of a typical Agile workflow.

- How cross-functional teams work in Agile.

- How product and user documentation in Agile differs from the documents required by traditional methods.

- What the Agile Technical Communicator’s role is in Agile.

- Plus, tips on adding value as