Have you heard me preach about the need for documentation enough yet? lol.... Well, hopefully it doesn't come across as preaching necessarily, but nothing has really changed since we placed an emphasis on it a few years ago....the need still exists for it and we are not completely there yet. YES! we have made some great strides towards filling some of the gaps we've had in the past when it comes to documentation...But, we are not there yet.All of you have helped bring our documentation up several layers from where we (and countless others) have been in this business and that is a good thing. While documentation of systems, builds, development, etc may not be on the top of our "want to do" list, it needs to be near the top of "things I will do."
Documentation isn't just something your IT Management Team wants...it is part of the SOP for our world. Best practices call for adequate and through documentation. Auditors clamour and sing praises when it exists....and even IT Techies appreciate it, when a system goes south and it aids in the recovery process. It needs to be just a natural part of the work that each and every one of us do here.
I will placing a higher priority in the coming Fiscal Year on quality documentation and will insist that our IT Managers/Team Leaders address that priority in our work plans for the coming year. Yes, it is that important..... I ask that each of you be thinking of ways in which you can improve our documentation. Where are we weak, what would benefit this group/this Agency if it were documented or perhaps better documented. Are we missing critical documentation---if so, address it or bring it to your Supervisor's attention.
We have many processes and some of which are adequately documented. We have other processes that we fully understand.....today.....that are not well documented. The goal here is to document it well enough that a new person could read it and be able to accomplish the task without much assistance. That's the value of documentation. Perhaps you could think of it as leaving a legacy....
I look forward to moving our documentation up a few more rungs on the ladder this coming fiscal year and helping this group better position ourselves as a critical component to the business of Conservation.
TAFN
2 comments:
Hmmm... this is interesting in light of the blog from a few days ago. You mentioned Agile technologies in that blog and one of the things that Agile remarks upon is that we (IT) are over-documented.
1.)"Documentation should be just barely good enough." 2.)"Comprehensive documentation does not ensure project success, in fact, it increases your chance of failure."
3.) "Documentation is as much a part of the system as the source code."
This is an example of what I was saying about changing our mindset on how we do business. If we only document the basics then how can anyone in the future follow the specifics when it comes to maintaining the application? Conversely, if we only document the basics, when it comes time to alter the specifics we will be more flexible in that alteration. Agile warns against "documenting oneself into a corner."
One last Agile quote and I'll quit: "The goal of software development is to produce software that meets the needs of your project stakeholders in an effective manner. The primary goal is not to produce extraneous documentation, extraneous management artifacts, or even models. Any activity that does not directly contribute to this goal should be questioned and avoided if it cannot be justified in this light."
Keep up the good work.
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