Focused Conversation: Revamping Legacy Docs

Over time, a document will become out of date. Product features, style guides, delivery platforms, and documentation best practices change, and often we don't have the resources to make all the updates necessary to keep up. Inevitably, some docs fall to the bottom of the priority list and form an unpleasant buildup of Legacy Documentation. Let's discuss this common challenge.

• What experiences have you had encountering legacy docs, either as a documentarian or as a user?
• What do you think causes legacy docs to accumulate?
• Have you ever solved a legacy docs problem (or at least greatly improved the situation)? How?
• What was the process like? What issues came up: archiving and obsolescing some docs, prioritizing the work, assigning the work around new docs development, managing version control, etc.?
• What impact did other people (individuals, teams, or roles) have in completing a legacy docs overhaul?
• What were the things that worked well?
• What obstacles were most challenging to overcome?
• What failed? What would you have done differently?

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