Here's a quick overview of Ryan Peterman's must-have writing templates for software engineers, designed to streamline essential documentation tasks—from design docs to postmortems and beyond. In his newsletter, Ryan explains that "writing is one of the most important skills for software engineers" and outlines templates that help structure repetitive but vital writing assignments. Whether you're drafting a technical proposal, reviewing a project failure, or summarizing code changes, these templates can save time and boost clarity. Ryan invites readers to bookmark the page, copy the templates for future use, and even share their feedback to improve the list further.

Key Points:

• Eng Design Doc: A template to propose future engineering work and gather feedback.
• Postmortem Review: A structured approach to analyze system failures and strategize improvements.
• Diff (or PR) Summary: A template to clearly describe every code change, saving time in documenting diffs.
• Direction Doc: A tool for setting clear strategic direction for engineering initiatives and team alignment.
• Eng Project Management: Features a simple timeline (or Gantt chart) spreadsheet for managing complex projects.
• Launch Post: A go-to template for quickly drafting results-oriented posts when sharing project outcomes.
• Ryan emphasizes, "copy the relevant template and start editing it next time you need to write for one of these common use cases," encouraging engineers to adopt these practices to refine their writing process.
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