Keeping Docs Up To Date

Why this matters

Stale documents cause wrong decisions, scope confusion, rework, and failed audits. Business Analysts keep the single source of truth accurate as changes roll in from product, engineering, legal, and support.

• Sprint work: update user stories, acceptance criteria, and process maps as scope shifts.
• Release readiness: confirm docs reflect what ships (fields, flows, error states).
• Audit/compliance: ensure traceability of decisions and approvals.
• Support/self-serve: FAQs and runbooks rely on current steps and screenshots.

Concept explained simply

Think of docs as a living product. The job is continuous grooming, not a one-time write-up.

• Correctness: content matches the current system.
• Coverage: all impacted areas are updated (not just one page).
• Discoverability: people can find the latest version quickly.
• Timestamp & Ownership: who last touched it and when.

When to update (triggers)

• Requirements or scope changes (approved or de-scoped).
• Design or copy updates that change user interactions or messages.
• API/version changes, schema changes, or new error codes.
• Release notes indicate shipped behavior differs from plan.
• Incident/postmortem learnings, new runbook steps, mitigations.
• Metric/KPI definition changes or new dashboards.
• Compliance/regulatory policy updates or new controls.

Lightweight update workflow

1. Detect: a trigger occurs (ticket update, release, incident).
2. Assess impact: list pages/artifacts touched (requirements, flow, API, SOPs, user help).
3. Update content: change text, diagrams, examples, screenshots.
4. Mark change: add a concise change note and date.
5. Notify: share the change in the team’s channel or change log.
6. Link: reference the source ticket/decision for traceability.

Change: [what changed concisely]
Reason: [ticket/decision ID, short why]
Impacts: [docs/pages updated]
Owner: [name]
Date: [YYYY-MM-DD]

Worked examples

{
  "cartId": "...",
  "paymentMethod": "card"
}

{
  "cartId": "...",
  "paymentMethod": "card",
  "referralCode": "STRING | optional, max 12"
}

Exercises

These mirror the interactive exercise below. You can complete them here and compare with the solution.

1. Exercise ex1: A ticket changes the field discountPercentage from integer to decimal with max two decimals. Update the requirement snippet, API example, and acceptance criteria. Add a change note. Use the checklist after completing.

Exercise completion checklist

• Updated every impacted artifact (requirements, API example, validation/AC).
• Added a dated change note with reason and owner.
• Deprecated or corrected any conflicting examples.
• Notified relevant stakeholders in your imaginary change log.

Common mistakes and how to self-check

• Updating one page only. Self-check: list all impacted artifacts; update or cross-link each.
• No validation details. Self-check: explicitly include types, ranges, formats, and examples.
• Missing timestamps and owners. Self-check: ensure every doc has Last updated + Owner at top.
• Unverifiable claims. Self-check: link to ticket/decision; keep facts traceable.
• Unknown audience. Self-check: state who the doc is for (devs, support, analysts) in the header.
• Dead screenshots. Self-check: compare UI to the latest build before release.

Weekly freshness checklist

• Scan last week’s merged tickets for doc-impacting changes.
• Compare release notes with planned scope; reconcile deltas.
• Review incident/postmortem actions for runbook updates.
• Search docs for deprecated terms or codes; fix or mark deprecated.
• Spot-check top 5 most viewed pages for accuracy.
• Post a weekly summary change log.

Practical projects

1. Mini change management system: Create a single-page change log that aggregates weekly updates using the template. Include links to the updated sections.
2. Impact map: Build a matrix that maps doc pages to systems/owners. Use it to quickly find what to update after a change.
3. Freshness audit: Pick 5 documents and run the weekly checklist. Add timestamps, owners, and change notes.

Who this is for, prerequisites, learning path

Who this is for

• Business Analysts, Product Analysts, and anyone maintaining product/process documentation.

Prerequisites

• Basic familiarity with requirements, user stories, and acceptance criteria.
• Ability to read simple JSON/API examples.

Learning path

• Before: Writing Clear Requirements; Versioning and Traceability.
• This lesson: Keeping Docs Up To Date (triggers, workflow, change notes).
• After: Review and Approval Workflows; Building a Doc Style Guide.

Next steps

• Apply the weekly freshness checklist to one real or sample project.
• Complete the exercise below and take the quick test. Note: the test is available to everyone; sign in to save your progress.

Mini challenge

Find one document you wrote in the last month. In 15 minutes, run the weekly checklist, make at least two improvements, and add a clear change note. Share a 3-line summary of what changed and why.