How do you document and share your IT automation knowledge and experience with orchestration tools?

1 Choose the right tool

The first step is to choose the right orchestration tool for your IT automation needs and goals. There are many orchestration tools available, each with its own features, strengths, and limitations. Some examples are Ansible, Chef, Puppet, Terraform, Jenkins, and Kubernetes. You should consider factors such as the complexity, scalability, reliability, security, and compatibility of your automation tasks and workflows, as well as the learning curve, cost, and support of the orchestration tool. You should also evaluate how easy or difficult it is to document and share your automation scripts, workflows, and configurations with the orchestration tool.

2 Follow the standards and conventions

The second step is to follow the standards and conventions for writing, formatting, naming, and organizing your automation scripts, workflows, and configurations. This will help you create clear, consistent, and readable code that can be easily understood and maintained by others. You should follow the best practices and guidelines of the orchestration tool you are using, as well as the general principles of coding style, syntax, indentation, comments, variables, functions, modules, and documentation. You should also use meaningful and descriptive names for your files, folders, parameters, inputs, outputs, and resources.

3 Use comments and documentation

The third step is to use comments and documentation to explain the purpose, logic, and functionality of your automation scripts, workflows, and configurations. Comments are short notes or annotations that you can insert in your code to provide additional information or clarification. Documentation is a more comprehensive and structured way of describing your code, its features, requirements, dependencies, parameters, outputs, and usage. You can use comments and documentation to describe the problem you are solving, the steps you are taking, the assumptions you are making, the expected results you are getting, and the potential errors or issues you are facing. You can also use comments and documentation to provide examples, references, links, and tips for your code.

4 Share your code and workflows

The fourth step is to share your code and workflows with others who can benefit from your IT automation knowledge and experience. You can use various methods and platforms to share your code and workflows, such as version control systems, code repositories, code sharing websites, online forums, blogs, wikis, podcasts, webinars, or workshops. You should choose the method and platform that best suits your audience, purpose, and format. You should also provide clear and concise instructions on how to access, install, run, test, modify, and troubleshoot your code and workflows. You should also invite feedback, questions, suggestions, and contributions from your peers and colleagues.

5 Learn from others

The fifth step is to learn from others who have IT automation knowledge and experience with orchestration tools. You can use various sources and resources to learn from others, such as books, articles, tutorials, courses, podcasts, webinars, workshops, or online communities. You should look for sources and resources that are relevant, reliable, up-to-date, and practical. You should also look for sources and resources that cover different aspects of IT automation with orchestration tools, such as concepts, techniques, tools, best practices, case studies, challenges, and solutions. You should also interact with other IT automation professionals and enthusiasts, ask questions, share insights, and exchange ideas.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?