Creating Documentation for New Products/Features

This article outlines the step-by-step process for Product Owners (POs), Product Managers (PMs) and Training and Documentation (T&D) team to draft, review, revise, and publish documentation. Follow these guidelines to streamline documentation drafting and publication processes to support our goal of providing accurate and up-to-date resources to our customers and Cadmium staff.

Step 1: Drafting Documentation and Organizing Documentation Needs in Monday.com

1. PM/PO makes a copy of the Monday.com board: Template: Drafting and Publishing New Documentation
2. Add the following documentation details:

• Category Name
• Article Title
• Draft Originator 
• Folder
• Persona
• Doc Draft Status
• Doc Link

3. PM/PO creates a Word document for each article and adds the shareable document link to the Monday.com board.
4. PM/PO provides access to product to T&D Team for screenshots.
5. Once a document has been drafted by the Draft Originator (PO/PM), they need to update the “Doc Draft Status” column to Ready for Doc Team. 
   • This will send an automated message to the Training and Documentation Team to let them know the document is ready for review. 

Step 2: Reviewing and Assigning Documentation

1. A T&D team member assigns themselves by updating the “T&D Contributor” column on the Monday.com board.
2. The T&D team member must also create a new documentation ticket on the Jira T&D project board for this task and assigns it to themselves. The status must be updated as needed. 
3. The T&D team member will contribute to the PM/PO's original doc draft, adding context where needed and ensuring it is written in a way that is consistent with the format, standards, style, and tone of Cadmium’s support documentation.
4. T&D member will update the “Doc Team Status” column - on Monday.com, accordingly.
5. Once the T&D Member has finalized their contribution to the documentation, the T&D member will notify the PM/PO that the articles are ready for review. The T&D member should update the Doc Draft Status - on Monday.com, to “Need PM Review.”
6. The PM/PO will review the document and update the Doc Draft Status accordingly. Any changes or feedback should be provided directly in the drafted Word document.
7. When the final draft has been reviewed and approved by PM/PO, they must update the "Doc Draft Status" to "Ready For Publication."

Step 3: Preparing Articles on the Cadmium Internal Documentation Portal - T&D Member ONLY.

1. The T&D team member creates the appropriate Category and Folders in the Cadmium Internal Documentation Portal.
   • Add the description: ‼️Only for Cadmium Employees‼️
2. The T&D member will create and publish blank articles as placeholders. Each article must include the "Cadmium Only - Do Not Distribute" template.
3. Add links from the internal documentation portal to the “INTERNAL ONLY Link” column on Monday.com.
4. Add the category to the correct live documentation portal and copy the links to the “LIVE link” column.
5. Once this is complete, immediately remove the category from the live portal and confirm that links are inactive (“dead”).

Step 4: Publishing and Updating Articles on the Cadmium Documentation Portal

1. The T&D member will copy all content from the reviewed and finalized Word document into Freshdesk. When doing so, they must follow all established formatting and style guidelines to ensure consistency with Cadmium’s support documentation.
2. Update the “Doc Team Status” column - on Monday.com, accordingly.
3. Once the document is published on Freshdesk, follow the: Request an Update to Existing Documentation on Freshdesk workflow for any future updates, changes, or edits. The PO/PM is responsible for submitting the ticket to the T&D Jira board for processing.

Step 5: Publishing Articles on the LIVE Documentation Portal - T&D Member ONLY.

1. Remove the "Cadmium Only - Do Not Distribute" template from all articles.
2. Update all inter-article hyperlinks to point to the LIVE article links.
3. Assign the appropriate category in the LIVE documentation portal.
4. Remove the category from the internal-only documentation portal.
   1. When categories and folders are moved to the live portal, remember to remove ‼️Only for Cadmium Employees‼️ as the description and add something appropriate to what the content in the category and folder is.
5. If needed, move the articles to the correct folder in the LIVE documentation portal.
6. On the T&D Jira Board, the T&D member must mark the task as complete.