Documentation Currency

Happy Thursday! 

Well, the cat is out of the bag.  Thank you all for wishing me a lovely birthday. 

My day (May 27) was packed full of adventures including playing Yahtzee with my mom (she beat me every time), doing a painting class, and playing Legend of Zelda, my best friend took me to get a facial, and we got DOORS on the house!  We also celebrated my dad’s birthday, May 28, by nibbling on carrot cake (which was his favorite). 

Sharing a picture from the past weekend where my boys surprised me by taking me to the Matchbox Twenty concert in Concord for my birthday.  I have LOVED this band for 27 years and have seen them 5x as a band and their lead singer, Rob Thomas, twice.  I even took my boys when they were smaller to the concerts.   It was a night to remember for sure.   Picture:  left picture:  Rob / Kyle singing If You’re Gone.  Top right picture: band singing 3AM.  Top middle right picture:  Me (I might have been crying a little), Justin (youngest), Devon (middle) and Brandon (eldest) in our sooooooooo close to stage seats (early!).  Bottom middle right picture:  Me, Brandon (eldest), Justin (youngest) and my husband, Bruce.  Bottom right picture:  Rob Thomas singing Unwell.   

Why it is important to keep documentation current

I was looking through documentation last week and remembered how easy it is to get so busy that we forget to keep our documentation up to date. 

Are you disciplined at keeping your documentation current? 

I bet, like me, you might say that you try but could do better at keeping documents up-to-date and accessible on Confluence so that others can consume them. 

After all, there are so many benefits of being disciplined about documentation currency.

Knowledge preservation – preserving knowledge is essential in application management especially as people grow and move into other roles. 

Knowledge sharing – Onboarding new team members is made easier when documentation is kept up to date.  It also takes the burden off of humans to train allowing a level of self-training and then using SMEs in more of a Q&A.  It gets us into a teach others to fish mode so that we can focus on the next big challenge.

Troubleshooting – documentation helps to troubleshoot problems or diagnose and resolve issues.  Clear documentation and reduce the time spent on debugging allowing for faster resolution.

Maintainability – as our environments grow, documentation helps us keep pace with the updates in architecture, dependencies, and interfaces reducing the complexity of the system by helping to understand it.

Compliance – documentation helps provide rapid turnaround in the event of regulatory or audit questions. 

Knowledge transfer – documentation helps individuals transcend.  It promotes organization continuity and minimizes the risk of knowledge silos. 

Improved collaboration – when the team has access to clear and concise documentation, it reduces communication barriers, misunderstandings, and the need for repetitive explanations. It enables individuals to work independently, make informed decisions, and share information.  All of which help with improved efficiency and productivity.   

Next week, please commit to reviewing the documentation that you are accountable for and ensure it is up to date.

Finally, as we walk into a three-day weekend, here in the United States, I encourage all to take a moment to remember the reason behind Memorial Day and the members of our military who died in service to their country.    

Happy Thursday Monday all,

-srt

P.S. If you don’t know Matchbox Twenty … let me help introduce you by encouraging you to google Smooth by Santana to hear Rob Thomas’ voice, or Little Wonders by Rob Thomas.  My favorite songs are 3AM and If You’re Gone.  Who knows, you might become a superfan too and join me at an upcoming concert.  I hear New Zealand in February is being scheduled!  LOL  😊