Use these template headings to help you create your own case study report.
Title
Organization or Project: Org Name (link to your organization's Google Season of Docs page or site)
Organization Description: An elevator pitch that gives a brief overview of what your organization or project does.
Authors: optional: list authors of the case study; use usernames if requested
Problem Statement
What problem were you trying to solve with new or improved documentation?
Proposal Abstract
A brief summary of your original organization proposal. Link to the proposal page on your project site, if possible.
Project Description
Creating the proposal
How did you come up with your Google Season of Docs proposal? What process did your organization use to decide on an idea? How did you solicit and incorporate feedback?
Budget
Include a short section on your budget. How did you estimate the work? Were there any unexpected expenses? Did you end up spending less than the grant award? Did you allocate funds properly or were some items you budgeted for more/less/unnecessary? Did you have other funds outside of Google Season of Docs that you were able to use?
Participants
Who worked on this project (use usernames if requested by participants)? How did you find and hire your technical writer? How did you find other volunteers or paid participants? What roles did they have? Did anyone drop out? What did you learn about recruiting, communication, and project management?
Timeline
Give a short overview of the timeline of your project (indicate estimated end date or intermediate milestones if project is ongoing).Did the original timeline need adjustment?
Results
What was created, updated, or otherwise changed? Include links to published documentation if available. Were there any deliverables in the proposal that did not get created? List those as well. Did this project result in any new or updated processes or procedures in your organization?
Metrics
What metrics did you choose to measure the success of the project? Were you able to collect those metrics? Did the metrics correlate well or poorly with the behaviors or outcomes you wanted for the project? Did your metrics change since your proposal? Did you add or remove any metrics? How often do you intend to collect metrics going forward?
Analysis
What went well? What was unexpected? What hurdles or setbacks did you face? Do you consider your project successful? Why or why not? (If it's too early to tell, explain when you expect to be able to judge the success of your project.)
Summary
In 2-4 paragraphs, summarize your project experience. Highlight what you learned, and what you would choose to do differently in the future. What advice would you give to other projects trying to solve a similar problem with documentation?
Appendix
If you have other materials you'd like to link to (for example, if you created a contract for working with your technical writer that you'd like to share, or templates for your documentation project, or other open documentation resources, you can list and link them here). The Appendix is also a good place to list links to any documentation tools or resources you used, or a place to add thanks or acknowledgments that might not fit into the sections above.