How do I use the word "documentation"?

Question

I am not sure how I should be using the word "documentation".

A documentation (on/of) X will be created soon.

A documentation (on/of) X is coming soon.

In the near future, I will create a documentation of X.

Answer 1

Weird and wonderful things happen to language in the IT world, so I won't speak to usage there; but in the scholarly world documentation means one of two things:

the act of documenting: providing texts or other material which establish the authority of an account, or

a body of texts and other materials which provide an authoritative account of something

One “creates” a document, but one documents or provides (or furnishes or supplies) documentation of or for something else. For instance:

Documentation of this claim will be provided shortly.
Documentation of/for this project will be published soon.
In the near future I will document this claim.

Answer 2

Documentation is uncountable. Thus you shouldn't write a documentation.

As far as I can see, all three of documentation on, documentation of and (less commonly) documentation for something are correct.

Answer 3

The above answers are all good, however I would like to add that there tends to be, at least in my experience, a trend of slightly different usages between the options "on" and "for"

"Documentation on" tends to be used for instructions and general information. As in "Do you have documentation on how to set up the printer"

"Documentation for" tends to be used for proof of specific things. As in "Do you have documentation for this $10,000 tax deduction in case we get audit."

Answer 4

Assuming we are using the word documentation as is customarily used in software engineering, here's how I would write those:

Documentation for X will be finished soon.

Documentation on X is coming soon.

In the near future, I will write the documentation for X.