In Continuous Software Development, Tools Are the Message for Documentation

In Continuous Software Development, a wide range of tools are used for all steps in the life cycle of a software product. Information about the software product is distributed across all those tools and not stored in a central repository. To better understand the software products, the following media elements must be taken into account: the types of information, the tools, tool-stacks and ecosystems to manage the (types of) information, and the amount of structure. In the tile, "tools" refers to the phrase "the medium is the message", coined by McLuhan and Fiore (1967) pointing that the medium should be subject of investigation as well as the content of the message. In this paper the tools include tool stacks, ecosystems, the types of information and amount of structure; they define the content of the message. Our approach to present relevant information to different stakeholders is rooted in understanding and utilizing these aspects. In this respect, the amount of structural variety of information defines the value for information creation and retrieval, including the tools to process that information. Documentation is considered an information type that is processed through tools in a software development ecosystem.