Importance of Documentation
I’ve been given assignments over the years where I step into maintaining an existing system and the first question I always ask is:
“Where can I find the documentation?”
Inexplicably, the answer usually falls into one of these categories:
- “We didn’t have the time (money, resources, etc.) to document.”
- “It doesn’t need to be documented.”
- “We haven’t got to it yet.”
And my personal favorite.
- “I don’t know.”
I find these answers inadequate to explain why vital pieces of institutional knowledge are not committed to permanent retention. Usually the situation that has made you ask for the documentation in the first place is that the resource that has the information you need is shortly to leave (be reassigned, going on extending leave, etc.). Having access to that resource for a couple of hours, or even days, is insufficient to answer the myriad of questions necessary to properly maintain and/or expand a system. When that resource is no longer available you are left with re-discovering things that the organization knew, but were lost due to the lack of permanent knowledge retention.
That permanent knowledge retention is written documentation.
I find myself bewildered by the fact that documentation has become passé given the value that I’ve found it, and continue to find it. Although it might be considered ‘overhead’ for projects, documentation is a lot like investing in a dull utility company: It pays dividends and gains in value over time.
For documentation to be effective, I find that it must following these guidelines:
- It must be easily accessible.
- It must be clearly organized.
- It must be readable.
- It is correct and up-to-date.
- It must have standard operating procedures (SOP’s).
- It must have diagrams (graphs, pictures, etc.).
I’ll breakdown each of these points in future posts.