Trends in developer documentation 2020 - Dashboard
3,110
visibility Viewed
855
Total Responses
406
flag Completed
47.49%
timelapse Completion Rate
449
do_not_disturb_on Dropouts
9 min
access_time Average Time
 
Countries Responses
US 36.61%
IN 14.50%
DE 5.15%
GB 4.68%
CA 4.33%
RU 3.74%
AU 2.57%
PL 1.99%
UA 1.99%
FR 1.64%
SE 1.40%
IL 1.40%
NL 1.29%
ES 1.29%
IE 1.17%
BY 1.05%
JP 0.94%
CZ 0.82%
BR 0.82%
CN 0.82%
GR 0.70%
IT 0.70%
DK 0.70%
KR 0.70%
BE 0.58%
PT 0.58%
RO 0.58%
RS 0.47%
CH 0.47%
MX 0.47%
HU 0.35%
AT 0.35%
FI 0.35%
VN 0.35%
SG 0.35%
MY 0.23%
PK 0.23%
SI 0.23%
JO 0.23%
TH 0.23%
EE 0.23%
NZ 0.23%
BA 0.23%
PH 0.23%
BO 0.12%
HK 0.12%
NE 0.12%
SK 0.12%
HR 0.12%
Unknown 0.12%
HT 0.12%
NO 0.12%
TZ 0.12%
AR 0.12%
ID 0.12%
LK 0.12%
PA 0.12%
CL 0.12%
LU 0.12%
PE 0.12%
ZA 0.12%
Total 100.00%
Do you primarily create documentation for either developers or engineers? 
Answer Count Percent
20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Yes 577 80.47%
No 112 15.62%
Other 28 3.91%
Total 717 100 %
Do you primarily create documentation for either developers or engineers?  - Text Data for Other
03/08/2020 58407762 Docs as code implementor, technical collateral creator
03/08/2020 58392284 Sometimes
03/05/2020 58190512 For my current contract, it's about 50% for developers and 50% for general customers (IT staff, but not necessarily Developers)
02/27/2020 57765329 I work with the tools used by devs and engineers
02/25/2020 57599608 For the moment I translate developers documentation into Russian
02/11/2020 56555044 end-users, admins but also devs
02/05/2020 56167923 Admins
01/31/2020 55414481 For both, as well as general users (such as students, general non-profits without a technical developer or engineer still wanting to use our products, etc)
01/20/2020 53615337 Customers, as it should be
01/14/2020 53213106 Both end users and developers
What is your primary authoring tool for creating documentation?
Answer Count Percent
20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Static site generator tools such as Jekyll, Hugo, Gatsby, Sphinx, Docusaurus, VuePress, MkDocs, Middleman, or some other tool listed on staticgen.com. 137 21.99%
Third-party cloud-based platforms such as Readme.io, DeveloperHub, Document 360, Paligo, Clickhelp, etc. 32 5.14%
One of the following XML authoring tools: OxygenXML, XMetal Author, or easyDITA 70 11.24%
Adobe Framemaker (either structured or unstructured) 17 2.73%
Help authoring tools (HATs) such as MadCap Flare, Author-it, or Robohelp 51 8.19%
Wiki platforms (e.g., Mediawiki, Confluence) 87 13.96%
Microsoft Word 55 8.83%
Google Docs 36 5.78%
Internally built tools 71 11.4%
Other 67 10.75%
Total 623 100 %
What is your primary authoring tool for creating documentation? - Text Data for Other
03/11/2020 58657997 Wordpress
03/10/2020 58538813 stoplight studio
03/08/2020 58403398 Markdown files displayed on GitHub
03/08/2020 58403253 markdown on github
03/08/2020 58392284 Sometimes GitBook too
03/05/2020 58190512 Currently using Flare but am actively looking at the GitHub & Static Site Generator s/w route
03/04/2020 58176210 Arbortext Epic
03/01/2020 57935871 Typora
02/29/2020 57900006 Auto tool generation like Sandcastle or JSDoc
02/29/2020 57850355 atom + asciidoctor
What specific tool(s) are you using to create documentation? (This is a freeform answer that follows up on the previous question.)
03/11/2020 58700551 Docsite
03/11/2020 58660155 I prefer Paligo now, though I've used others. Budgets generally constrain me to Word.
03/11/2020 58657997 A WordPress site with some content in GitHub. Plus moving over to a Gatsby site (currently Docusaurus) on GitLab.
03/11/2020 58655177 Oxygen, Confluence, and a corporate tool (Wdesk)
03/11/2020 58644907 Madcap Flare
03/10/2020 58591834 jekyll
03/10/2020 58589739 readme.io, confluence, google docs
03/10/2020 58576961 Google docs for first round review, taking advantage of collaborative tools with comments. Static site generator, such as SHINS (Shins Is Not Slate) for API documentation. Confluence for internal developer guides. MD Readme's in Github repos.
03/10/2020 58576681 VuePress for main docs, ReDoc for OpenAPI spec. Content and site code stored in the same repo in GitHub (one each for main docs site & API reference); continuous deployment on Netlify.
03/10/2020 58552007 MS Word
If you write content in a text editor, which text editor do you mainly use?
Answer Count Percent
20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Atom editor 72 14.04%
Visual Studio Code 130 25.34%
Sublime Text 49 9.55%
WebStorm 3 0.58%
Notepad++ 97 18.91%
Brackets 10 1.95%
GitHub UI 21 4.09%
Vim 22 4.29%
n/a - I don't use a text editor when writing docs 56 10.92%
Other 53 10.33%
Total 513 100 %
If you write content in a text editor, which text editor do you mainly use? - Text Data for Other
03/11/2020 58700551 Emacs
03/11/2020 58660155 Editpad ++
03/10/2020 58576961 MacDown
03/09/2020 58418788 Internal text editor
03/08/2020 58403398 CLion, PyCharm
03/08/2020 58397175 PTC Arbortext Epic Editor
03/05/2020 58241169 internal markdown editor
03/05/2020 58190512 I use the Flare xml editor - and also the GitHub UI - and sometimes Notepad++
02/29/2020 57850399 RJ TextEd
02/28/2020 57824680 Flare
In general, do you follow a "docs-as-code" approach, where you treat documentation similar to how developers treat code? (e.g., write docs in a text editor, manage with version control, compile using a static site generator, build from the server, etc.)
Answer Count Percent
20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Yes 226 55.8%
No 83 20.49%
Somewhat 91 22.47%
Other 5 1.23%
Total 405 100 %
In general, do you follow a docs-as-code approach, where you treat documentation similar to how developers treat code? (e.g., write docs in a text editor, manage with version control, compile using a static site generator, build from the server, etc.) - Text Data for Other
03/05/2020 58190512 That is the goal for the SDK docs
02/25/2020 57578792 I recommend Docs as Code when all the code is in one repo. If there's a family of repos, you lose some of the DaC advantages.
02/20/2020 57194743 using DITA CMS (Dynamic Release Management)
01/09/2020 52975759 Docs in the code are code, other docs are in Confluence
Powered by QuestionPro