How do you benchmark your documentation performance against industry standards and best practices?

Most important metrics like Accuracy, Accessibility, and Version control can have measurable indicators in the form of KPIs in the documentation. 1. Accuracy a. Frequency of errors b. Correction Time c. Number of errors reported by users. 2. Accessibility: a. Accessibility Compliance Score against standards like Web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG) b. User Accessibility Feedback 3. Version Control: a. Version Accuracy b. Update Timelines c. Resolution time, if mismatched found.

Many hand light Labour. In the past people manage documents and 100 documents owned by 5 authors a 1 approver means you have the responsibility defined but do they have the time blocked to manage the work. Well now with chatgpt and other AI capable technologies, content management will be done in milliseconds not hours.

In the past, there was a lack of a systematic approach in planning and executing software documentation projects. This article mentions the KPIs to measure software documentation, which is a useful addition to the world of technical documentation. However, this article would be very helpful if you include the formulae and other methods of calculating or capturing the KPIs.

To benchmark your documentation performance against industry standards, begin by measuring the core infrastructure KPIs that are easy to track on your site. Focus on traffic, search queries (especially searches with clicks), content engagement (clicks, shares, likes), and self-service metrics. Tracking these KPIs helps identify areas for improvement, reduce support costs, and drive product adoption. At Zoomin, we've created the Technical Content Benchmark Report, offering benchmark numbers based on real user interactions, and actionable insights to enhance your content strategy, ensuring your documentation meets user expectations and fosters brand loyalty.

It might be difficult to capture the conversion rate of software documentation because most company websites allow customers to download the software documentation only after they have purchased the software. Conversion rate metrices might well apply to sales and marketing documentation. I stand corrected though.

In my experience, a software/technical documentation team is a nonrevenue generation team. So, how can managers measure revenue metrices of software documentation, unless there is price breakup data available against a software sale? A technical documentation manager might face difficulty accessing sales figures of a software.

Start by researching industry-specific standards and best practices related to documentation. Define clear objectives for your documentation benchmarking process.Carefully compare your documentation to the industry standards and best practices you've identified.Seek feedback from relevant stakeholders, including users, customers, & internal teams, regarding the quality & usability of your documentation.Identify gaps/areas where your documentation falls short of industry standards or best practices and prioritize it. Develop a comprehensive plan for improving your documentation based on the identified gaps & feedback.Test revised documentation with users or stakeholders to ensure changes have positively impacted its quality & effectiveness.

We saw the impact of docs on business metrics when we revamped Pagbank's developer portal. Our team improved the API Reference by adding request/response examples, explaining the different user journeys available on the product, and also detailing all the steps users need to take sequentially. Moreover, we also rebuilt, improved the UX, and restructured the User Guides to make them consistent, coherent with the real user journeys, and connected with the API reference. The results were: CSAT increased from 51% to 81% and support tickets reduced by 33%.