Succeeding with Open Source

Executive Summary

Documentation is a critical resource when working with software. Software's complexity demands that accurate and helpful documentation be available. Lack of good documentation for an open source product can stop a project in its tracks as team members pore through incomplete or unhelpful documentation.

Beyond its importance as a resource for open source success, the state of a product's documentation implies a great deal about the maturity of an open source product. Product documentation goes through predictable stages as the product matures. Assessing what stage a product's documentation is at offers insight into how mature the product is.

The three types of product documentation are reference, tutorial, and usage (usage is ...