Question: How can one do independent/freelance software documentation? • Hacker News Board

Re: Question: How can one do independent/freelance software documentation?

#11

Post by qsmrf » Sun, Jul 10, 2022, 5:47 PM UTC

bruce511 wrote: post #6

My personal history with documentation from a programmer perspective is complicated. 20 something years ago I wrote a big system. It needed documentation so I hired a full time technical writer. He produced mountains of documentation, more than enough to satisfy the pickiest customer. And I'm pretty sure it was useless (beyond the sales process.) It described everything in detail, but lacked any sense of how things w…

Thanks for such a detailed response - It really helps alot.

Interesting explanation about the trade-offs between an external software document expert vs someone hired internally. And I get that completely.

Very intriguing point about the internal documentation/day to day type stuff. I will look into that as I have not come across something like that as of yet. Could you nudge me in the right direction into what should I look for on the internet if someone was interested in the type of documentation you are referring to? What I'm understanding is that its the business analyst type documentation you are referring to?

Cheers.

Re: Question: How can one do independent/freelance software documentation?

#12

Post by bruce511 » Mon, Jul 11, 2022, 3:06 AM UTC

qsmrf wrote: post #11

bruce511 wrote: post #6

My personal history with documentation from a programmer perspective is complicated. 20 something years ago I wrote a big system. It needed documentation so I hired a full time technical writer. He produced mountains of documentation, more than enough to satisfy the pickiest customer. And I'm pretty sure it was useless (beyond the sales process.) It described everything in detail, but lacked any sense of how things w…

Thanks for such a detailed response - It really helps alot. Interesting explanation about the trade-offs between an external software document expert vs someone hired internally. And I get that completely. Very intriguing point about the internal documentation/day to day type stuff. I will look into that as I have not come across something like that as of yet. Could you nudge me in the right direction into what shoul…

>> Could you nudge me in the right direction into what should I look for on the internet

Not really. I've no idea how you would go about finding this sort of work online. LinkedIn maybe?

It's worth noting that this kind of independent contracting is a terrible business model. We did it as programmers when we started. It was hard to find work, and we basically started from 0 everytime a job finished.

During the downtime (and there wax plenty of it) we wrote our own code, and it was only once we got some market traction with that that we started getting a regular paycheck. Before that we had to work hard to get paid, and there was not a lot left after costs for things like salaries. The months we got paid 100% were few.

So, to your question, can you write independently, I guess the answer is yes, but it's not done thing I'd recommended. Hopefully it's just a step to a much better gig, which I assume is writing books. If you are an independent you want to be doing something to generate reoccurring revenue.

Re: Question: How can one do independent/freelance software documentation?

#13

Post by weitzj » Tue, Jul 12, 2022, 4:08 PM UTC

qsmrf wrote: post #10

weitzj wrote: post #4

You could do specific software documentation and say that you help write documents so that your clients’ software will meet some kind of certification like ISO27001 as an example. So your niche would be software documentation with regards to what needs to be documented to meet some external criteria

Hmm, Interesting. Doesnt ISO27001 have like a really tough barrier or something - I did some googling and I guess one needs to have some certifications or something under their belt. Still tho, I think this seems like a niche enough thing to pursue.

Insurances or banks benefit from this kind of documentation job. ISO 27001 was just an example. There is enough compliance documentation to be written out there :)

You could do technical writing to meet German BSI Grundschutz certification for some kind of software or SaaS usage