Mautic project

This page contains the details of a technical writing project accepted for Google Season of Docs.

Project summary

Open source organization:
Mautic
Technical writer:
Favour Kelvin
Project name:
Knowledgebase
Project length:
Standard length (3 months)

Project description

Abstract

A knowledgebase is a centralized repository where information is stored, organized, and then shared. When used externally, a knowledge base is where users can go to learn any and everything they’d ever need to know about a company’s products or services, organization, and industry. An internal knowledge base, on the other hand, is typically utilized as a way to allow the community/users to collaborate and distribute all company knowledge and information internally. While the content of specific knowledge bases varies based on numerous factors, most typically include information regarding how to get started using specific products, get more use out of advanced features, and overcome common problems or issues. The main benefit of creating and presenting a knowledge base to your audience is that it enables you to provide in-depth, instant, on-demand information, and answers to your audience members/users/community without needing to do so individually.

Mautic Knowledgebase is a central repository for tutorials, how-to guides, and best practices on topics related to Mautic - whether directly (e.g. how to do things in Mautic) or indirectly (e.g. more general marketing strategies).

At the time of this writing, the Mautic Knowledgebase is quite new and incomplete and the Mautic community wants to use this project to improve its way of providing in-depth and on-demand information to the user documentation to enable end-users to have a seamless experience when using Mautic. Going through the Mautic Knowledgebase was quite informative but needed updated tutorials and how-to guides also the creation of new ones as well as to match the Mautic 3x version.

My first impressions when going through the existing documentation Currently, the Mautic Knowledgebase is available https://kb.mautic.org/. Some of the tutorials and how-to-guides and best practices topics in the documentation aren’t up-to-date and is sparse or incomplete and also does not cover information about the current version of the mautic.

Why is your proposed improvement over the current one/areas I would love to contribute to? The proposed improvement will be to improve and ensure efficiency, consistency, and peace of mind for any end-user. It will contain written tutorials and how-to-guides and best practices and its associated images, include instructions and explanation on how to use each feature of the mautic, up to date, easy to navigate, and understandable.

Analysis

The Mautic Knowledgebase was written in Grav flat-file CMS and the KLB4 theme. I researched a lot on ways to improve the knowledgebase documentation

Project Goals

  • Review the knowledgebase.
  • Update the tutorials and how-to-guides fit the Mautic 3x version.
  • Create resources for the newly created Mautic Community Knowledgebase
  • Write a series of how-to tutorials and guides that will help Mautic users be more effective in setting up, configuring, and using the application.
  • Update the video tutorial to fit the Mautic 3x version.
  • Remove obsolete images and information.
  • Rewrite the knowledgebase to make it easier to understand.
  • Ensure proper implementation of the style guide/pattern of the knowledgebase documentation

Timeline

Before August 1

  • Continue making contributions to the organization.
  • Become more familiar with the knowledgebase documentation and current version of Mautic.
  • Learn new techniques and technical writing skills which will be helpful while implementing the project.

Community bonding (August 1 - September 1)

  • Set up a communication channel and time (due to time difference)
  • Refine my goals and set expectations on both sides
  • Learn more about the community and product
  • Discussing the proposed documentation structure with the mentors and other members of the organization.
  • Finalize the proposed features and other modifications that need to be made to the existing documentation.

Documentation Period

  • Week 1 (2nd September - 22nd November)
  • During these periods I would be working directly with my mentors to :
  • Review the knowledgebase.
  • Update the tutorials and how-to-guides fit the Mautic 3x version.
  • Create resources for the newly created Mautic Community Knowledgebase
  • Write a series of how-to tutorials and guides that will help Mautic users be more effective in setting up, configuring, and using the application.
  • Update the video tutorial to fit the Mautic 3x version.
  • Remove obsolete images and information.
  • Rewrite the knowledgebase to make it easier to understand.
  • Ensure proper implementation of the style guide/pattern of the knowledgebase documentation.
  • Taking into consideration the cadence of release as the dev team would be busy around minor features releases

Project Evaluation (November 25 - 29 November 2019)

  • Submit a project report and evaluation by my mentors
  • Write and submit a report of my experience as a participant in the Season of Docs.