Short answer
Technical documentation assesses whether recorded knowledge lets its intended reader operate, maintain, or change a technical system.
About Technical documentation
The ability to record technical knowledge clearly enough for an intended audience to operate, maintain, or change a system.
Use this competency for
- Roles that create decisions, interfaces, procedures, or systems others must understand.
- Functions where missing or stale knowledge causes repeated questions or unsafe changes.
Do not use this competency for
- Work that produces no technical knowledge another person needs to use or maintain.
Important distinctions
Communication
Communication covers timely information exchange. Technical documentation covers durable technical knowledge for a defined task.
System design
System design makes structural choices. Technical documentation preserves the context and instructions needed to use those choices.
Expectations by level
IC1
Individual contributor 1
Updates scoped technical documentation with guidance so a teammate can follow the current procedure or understand the changed behavior.
Observable behaviors
- Updates documentation in the same change as the affected behavior.
- Uses the established format and links the relevant artifact.
- Follows the instructions once to check for missing steps.
Examples
- Updated setup instructions after adding a required configuration value.
- Corrected a runbook command and verified it in a non-production environment.
IC2
Individual contributor 2
Independently creates and maintains documentation for a team-owned system, resolving gaps for readers with different context.
Observable behaviors
- Names the reader, task, prerequisites, and expected result.
- Records decisions with alternatives and consequences.
- Removes or marks stale guidance when behavior changes.
Examples
- Wrote an operations guide that let an on-call engineer handle a known failure without escalation.
- Documented an interface change with examples for both current and migrating consumers.
IC3
Individual contributor 3
Sets documentation practices across teams for complex shared systems and makes ownership and freshness visible without becoming the sole author.
Observable behaviors
- Defines minimum documentation for shared technical boundaries.
- Assigns ownership and review triggers to critical documents.
- Uses reader failures or repeated questions to improve the standard.
Examples
- Created a shared decision-record format adopted by teams working on one platform.
- Added review ownership to recovery guides after outdated steps delayed two exercises.