Context card
Topic-based vs. task-based documentation
Is topic-based documentation the same as task-based documentation?
The short answer
No. Topic-based documentation is about the unit: content is written in self-contained topics and assembled by maps. Task-based documentation is about selection: content is chosen and organised around the tasks users perform. A topic-based set can be feature-oriented, and task orientation also works in a book, but the two are most often combined.
For: Technical writers and information architects
Key points
- Topic-based answers “how is content divided?”; task-based answers “which content do users need?”
- Task topics are one information type among others, next to concept and reference topics.
- Task analysis — users, goals, tasks, conditions — comes before writing.
- A topic-based set organised by product features is not task-based.
- Concepts and reference data remain necessary; they are linked from tasks.
The context
Unit vs. selection
In topic-based documentation every topic covers one subject and can be reused in several deliverables through maps. The model says nothing about which topics a set needs.
Task-based documentation starts from an analysis of what users want to achieve. Procedures — in DITA, task topics with prerequisites, steps and results — form the core; concept and reference topics supply what the tasks require.
Why the distinction matters
Modularizing a feature-oriented manual produces topics, but not task orientation. Conversely, a task-oriented book is not topic-based. Information typing connects the two: the task type gives task content a fixed structure inside a topic-based system.
Questions readers ask next
- Does DITA make documentation task-based?
- Not by itself. DITA provides a task information type, but which tasks are documented depends on task analysis.
- Are concept topics still needed in task-based documentation?
- Yes. Tasks rely on concepts and reference data; task-based documentation links them rather than leaving them out.
Sources
Review log and changes
Every context card is checked against its sources before it is published, and again whenever it changes; the date under the byline is the last review. Corrections (something was wrong) and additions (something was missing) are logged below with date and time (Berlin time). Typos, formatting and link fixes are not listed.
Reviewed
No corrections or additions since publication.