Understanding Evergreen Documents

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Back in the days of paper and pencil, before everything went digital, technical writers would sweat bullets over the quality and accuracy of a document prior to publication. After we pulled the trigger and the PDF file was sent to the printer, we would pray that there were no career-altering errors in our document—because it was too late to fix them.

Today, this is no longer the case (with the polite exception of those who still go to print). From standard operating procedures to policy statements to website blog articles, enterprise technical documentation has transmogrified from static to dynamic. In the process, it has become something called evergreen. You can also think of it as "dynamic documentation."

What is Evergreen?

Evergreen documentation, also known as living documents, does more than merely give tech writers like us the ability to update and fix problems in our content post-publication. It also creates an environment in which these documents and communications assets must be maintained.

Does your organization have a plan in place that schedules content reviews and updates? Because your savvy competitors do. Digital publishing and the resulting evergreen documents provide not only ease of correcting errors, but also a requirement to keep said docs current.

A 100 percent accurate document today may be filled with errors and unsuitable for its intended audience only a few years—or even just a few months—from now. The increasingly rapid pace of advancement of technology in the business world basically necessitates that every enterprise organization develop and practice an evergreen strategy.

For example, consider policies and procedures, which play a critical role in the efficiency and operational integrity of any company. Having current policies and procedures makes the difference between successful inspections and audits and costly fines and public embarrassment that erode stakeholder confidence. In other words, the accuracy of your evergreen documents is paramount and cannot be overstated.

What Evergreen is Not

The evergreen status of a document does not mean that it is current. Think of evergreen as an opportunity based on updatability, if you will. Like evergreen trees may or may not be well manicured and free of invasive vines and dead limbs, evergreen documentation is an invitation to maintain accuracy—but in no way guarantees that such maintenance actually occurs.

Thus, it's incorrect to say "this document is evergreen" when referring to how up-to-date it is. A clearer description would be "this evergreen document is out-of-date" or "this evergreen document is current." The document is evergreen based merely on the fact that it is digital and readily updatable, not whether it is accurate and current.

Importance of an Evergreen Strategy

If your organization lacks a comprehensive evergreen strategy, get on it today (I can help you). Evergreen document strategies don't have to be overly complex. If you have a barebones evergreen plan that involves only a few calendar entries that trigger review and update cycles, you're ahead of the curve.

A solid evergreen strategy helps enterprises practice continual improvement, with a focus on efficiency and accuracy. A rapidly evolving business landscape, including dynamic regulatory oversight, frenetic technical innovation, and an always-shifting marketplace demands this. No longer do we, as IT professionals and technical writers, live in a world of publish-and-forget-it.

Good Luck

I strive to respect your time and not get too verbose with these articles (one of my Pillars of Technical Writing is terseness, after all). I could wax philosophical for thousands of words about evergreen documentation, boring you with war stories and colorful anecdotes. However, consider this article agenda setting. If your only takeaway is that you need to convince your boss to allow you to develop an evergreen documentation strategy, we were successful today.

By keeping documentation current, enterprises reduce the risk of making decisions based on outdated information, which enhances decision-making effectiveness. A solid evergreen strategy allows an organization to help ensure that its knowledge base is as agile as the market in which it operates.

But that's just my opinion. Share your thoughts in the comments.

— Curt Robbins, Senior Technical Writer

P.S.: I'm currently taking on new clients. I enjoy helping companies with their evergreen documentation strategy. Contact me to learn about my reasonable rates and fast turnaround.