Why Technical Authors are disappearing from IT Projects

Technical authors are vanishing from many IT projects.

Not because documentation is no longer needed.

But because organisations convinced themselves that:

• • • Agile removed the need for documentation
    • SMEs could “just write it”
    • Developers could document as they build
    • Wikis replaced structured information management
    • AI can now generate everything automatically

The result?

Documentation did not disappear. Ownership disappeared.

The Agile Misinterpretation

IT misunderstood Agile, believing it meant:

Less documentation.

What Agile challenged was:

• • • Excessive bureaucracy
    • Huge unused specification sets
    • Documentation written for sign-off instead of operational value

But somewhere along the line, many organisations translated this into:

We no longer need technical authors.

So documentation responsibilities were fragmented across:

• • • Developers
    • Business analysts
    • Product owners
    • Service managers
    • Support teams

Everyone became partially responsible.

Which usually means nobody became fully accountable.

IT Projects Still Produce Complexity

Modern IT environments are not simpler but more complex than they were 20 years ago.

Today’s projects involve:

1. 1. • Cloud platforms
      • APIs
      • Identity management
      • Cybersecurity controls
      • SaaS integrations
      • DevOps pipelines
      • Automation
      • Data governance
      • Compliance obligations
      • Hybrid infrastructure
      • AI systems

Yet many projects still assume documentation can “emerge naturally.”

What usually emerges is:

• • • Scattered Confluence pages
    • Outdated SharePoint libraries
    • Tribal knowledge
    • Slack conversations acting as operational memory
    • Contradictory procedures
    • Uncontrolled revisions

Eventually, operational support inherits the chaos.

The “SMEs Will Write It” Fantasy

Subject Matter Experts are essential.

But SMEs are not usually:

• • • Information architects
    • Editors
    • Audience analysts
    • Metadata specialists
    • Structured writing professionals
    • Governance specialists

Most SMEs focus on:

• • • Delivering systems
    • Solving technical problems
    • Meeting deadlines

Documentation becomes secondary.

Postponed until the last phase of a project — when schedules collapse, and budgets tighten.

That is where technical authors historically added value:

• • • Extracting knowledge
    • Structuring information
    • Standardising terminology
    • Identifying gaps
    • Challenging ambiguity
    • Creating usable operational guidance

Without that role, knowledge quality declines rapidly.

Documentation became Invisible Work.

In many IT organisations, documentation is now treated as:

• • • Administrative overhead
    • Non-billable effort
    • A project afterthought
    • Something AI can “tidy up later”

Yet the same organisations later struggle with:

• • • Failed handovers
    • Poor onboarding
    • Repeated incidents
    • Knowledge loss
    • Service desk dependency
    • Operational inconsistency
    • Audit failures

Because undocumented systems create operational drag.

The irony is simple:
The more complex IT becomes, the more valuable structured information becomes.

AI is speeding up the illusion

AI has amplified the belief that technical writing is “generating text.”

But experienced technical authors are not typists.

They managed:

• • • Information quality
    • Knowledge structures
    • Content governance
    • Audience interpretation
    • Process consistency
    • Lifecycle control
    • Information retrieval
    • Operational usability

While AI can produce drafts quickly, it does not inherently:

• • • Understand organisational risk
    • Detect conflicting operational procedures
    • Validate technical accuracy
    • Govern document lifecycles
    • Manage controlled information environments

Many times, AI speeds up the production of unmanaged content.

The Hidden Shift

Interestingly, technical authors have not entirely disappeared. We have changed titles:

Across IT projects, former technical authors now operate as:

• • • Information managers
    • Knowledge managers
    • Content strategists
    • Service transition analysts
    • Governance specialists
    • Digital adoption consultants
    • Documentation engineers
    • Information architects

The writing component became only one part of a broader information role.

The Long-Term Risk

IT projects can survive in the short term without dedicated technical authors.

Until:

• • • Key staff leave
    • Systems fail
    • Audits occur
    • Services scale
    • Migrations happen
    • Security incidents arise
    • Regulatory scrutiny increases

Then organisations rediscover the same truth:

• • • Operational resilience depends on reliable information.
    • And reliable information rarely happens accidentally.
    • The disappearance of technical authors from IT projects may save money on a spreadsheet.
    • But over time, many organisations discover that they have not removed the need for technical authors.
    • They merely removed the people responsible for keeping organisational knowledge usable.