Internal documentation at scale: SPS Commerce case study

SPS Commerce, a leader in retail network solutions, has significantly enhanced its internal developer documentation to support its platform engineering efforts, which aim to balance autonomy and standardization through a shared set of tools and workflows. Initially, the company faced challenges such as fragmented documentation, poor discoverability, and redundant development efforts. To address these issues, SPS Commerce centralized its documentation into a single, easily accessible URL using GitHub Pages, adopting a "docs-as-code" approach to integrate documentation updates with software development processes. However, as the company and its documentation needs grew, this system became inadequate, leading to the adoption of Fern, a more robust platform that significantly improved build speed, search capabilities, and overall documentation accessibility. Fern's AI-enabled search and enterprise-level performance have facilitated more efficient knowledge sharing and onboarding, demonstrating that effective platform engineering is closely linked to high-quality documentation.

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