How To: Naming Conventions For Documentation

Consistent naming conventions are crucial to getting the most out of your documentation. With strong naming conventions, you’ll be able to find documents efficiently, avoid creating duplicate documents, and easily understand the contents of a document without having to click into it. It’s important to get naming conventions correct early on to avoid having to go back and update a bunch of documents later. Remember, naming conventions are all about utility; once the system is learned, anybody should be able to interpret the document name accurately.

Best Practices

To develop the optimal naming convention for your documentation, it’s a good idea to review some of common best practices and basic guiding principles. You want to be able to get useful information from the name itself and make sure everyone can find the right file quickly and easily.

Create a naming convention by identifying elements of information that are most important to your organization. These are typically important differences and commonalities found in your daily operations/projects.