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What the workflow actually needs.

The teams that get documentation right share one thing. It is not talent.

Consistency

The teams that get documentation right consistently, at speed, without the rework, tend to share a few characteristics.

They treat documentation as part of the product, not a deliverable that follows the product. Writers are in sprint planning. They see the feature before it's released, not after.

They have structured inputs. Not just a spec and a hope. A defined set of information that the writer needs before they can write: what the feature does, what it does not do, who it is for, what can go wrong, how it connects to adjacent features. When that information is not available, documentation does not start. It waits.

They have short feedback loops. Documentation that goes to a reviewer two days before release will always be under-reviewed. Documentation that moves through a defined, lightweight review cycle gets better results in less time.

They measure documentation quality. Not informally, not by feel. The teams that treat documentation as a measurable output improve it. The teams that treat it as a box to tick do not.

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