Documentation Standards

Purpose

Documentation is a critical part of software development that serves multiple essential purposes:

Knowledge Transfer

Enables new team members to quickly understand the codebase
Preserves architectural decisions and their rationales
Reduces dependency on tribal knowledge
Facilitates cross-team collaboration

Code Maintenance

Helps developers understand code behavior and intent
Reduces time spent deciphering complex logic
Makes refactoring safer and more efficient
Tracks changes and their justifications

Quality Assurance

Provides a reference for expected behavior
Helps identify inconsistencies between documentation and implementation
Supports testing efforts by clarifying requirements
Aids in code review processes

Documentation Types

1. Code Documentation

XML Documentation Comments

Required for:

All public classes, interfaces, and members
Protected members that are meant to be overridden
Complex private methods

/// <summary>
/// Processes customer orders and updates inventory.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="order">The order to process. Must not be null.</param>
/// <param name="options">Optional processing configurations.</param>
/// <returns>The processed order with updated status.</returns>
/// <exception cref="ArgumentNullException">Thrown when order is null.</exception>
/// <exception cref="InvalidOperationException">Thrown when inventory is insufficient.</exception>
public async Task<Order> ProcessOrderAsync(
    Order order, 
    ProcessingOptions? options = null)
{
    // Implementation
}

Inline Comments

Use for:

Complex algorithms
Business rule implementations
Workarounds or temporary solutions

// Retry pattern with exponential backoff
for (int i = 1; i <= maxRetries; i++)
{
    try
    {
        await ProcessAsync();
        break;
    }
    catch (Exception) when (i < maxRetries)
    {
        // Wait longer between each retry
        await Task.Delay(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(Math.Pow(2, i)));
    }
}

2. Project Documentation (/docs)

index.md

# Project Name Documentation

Welcome to the Project Name documentation. This documentation will help you:
- Understand the project's architecture and design
- Set up your development environment
- Implement new features
- Troubleshoot common issues

## Quick Links
- [Getting Started](getting-started/installation.md)
- [Architecture Overview](guides/architecture.md)
- [API Documentation](api/endpoints.md)
- [Contributing Guidelines](CONTRIBUTING.md)

Installation Guide (getting-started/installation.md)

# Installation Guide

## Prerequisites
- .NET 6.0 SDK or higher
- Visual Studio 2022
- SQL Server 2019+

## Setup Steps
1. Clone the repository
2. Configure application settings
3. Run database migrations
4. Build and run the application

## Verification
Follow these steps to verify your installation...

3. API Documentation

Swagger/OpenAPI

Required for all Web API projects:

/// <summary>
/// Creates a new customer order.
/// </summary>
/// <remarks>
/// Sample request:
/// 
///     POST /api/orders
///     {
///        "customerId": "123",
///        "items": [
///           {
///              "productId": "456",
///              "quantity": 1
///           }
///        ]
///     }
/// </remarks>
/// <response code="201">Returns the newly created order</response>
/// <response code="400">If the order is invalid</response>
[ProducesResponseType(typeof(Order), StatusCodes.Status201Created)]
[ProducesResponseType(StatusCodes.Status400BadRequest)]
public async Task<IActionResult> CreateOrder([FromBody] CreateOrderRequest request)

Documentation Standards By File Type

1. README.md

# Project Name

Brief description of the project's purpose and main features.

## Quick Start
```bash
git clone [repository-url]
cd project-name
dotnet restore
dotnet run

Features

Feature 1: Description
Feature 2: Description

Documentation

Full documentation can be found in the docs folder.

Contributing

Please read our Contributing Guidelines.


### 2. CHANGELOG.md
```markdown
# Changelog

## [1.0.0] - 2024-03-20
### Added
- Feature X
- Feature Y

### Changed
- Updated dependency A to version 2.0
- Improved performance of operation B

### Fixed
- Bug in feature C
- Issue with component D

3. CONTRIBUTING.md

# Contributing Guidelines

## Development Process
1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Make your changes
4. Submit a pull request

## Code Style
- Follow the project's coding standards
- Write unit tests for new features
- Update documentation as needed

## Pull Request Process
1. Update the README.md if needed
2. Update the CHANGELOG.md
3. Get approval from maintainers

Documentation Best Practices

Do's

Keep documentation close to the code it describes
Update documentation with code changes
Use clear, concise language
Include code examples
Add diagrams for complex systems
Version documentation with code
Link related documentation sections

Don'ts

Write documentation for obvious code
Include sensitive information
Leave TODO comments without tickets
Copy-paste documentation without review
Let documentation become outdated
Use unclear abbreviations

Tools and Automation

Required Tools

DocFX for API documentation
Swagger/OpenAPI for REST APIs
Markdown linter
XML documentation validators

Visual Studio Settings

<PropertyGroup>
  <GenerateDocumentationFile>true</GenerateDocumentationFile>
  <NoWarn>$(NoWarn);1591</NoWarn>
</PropertyGroup>

Build Integration

# Documentation build steps
steps:
  - name: Build Documentation
    run: docfx build
  - name: Validate Links
    run: linkcheck

Review Process

Documentation Review Checklist

[ ] Follows standard structure
[ ] Includes all required sections
[ ] Code examples are correct
[ ] Links are valid
[ ] No sensitive information
[ ] Spelling and grammar
[ ] Markdown formatting
[ ] Generated docs build successfully

C# Coding Standard