Documentations, when you have it you don't see the value of it (Price-less), when you don't have it you would be giving anything for it (Priceless).
This is especially true for companies who not just develop the software for their customer, but would also be responsible for maintenance as well. Everything seems to be working fine at delivery, acceptance tests passed, acceptance letters signed and the final payment received. At that moment, no one pays attention to the documentations that come with the delivery. Someone may even be agonized over the wasted hours on them.
Fast forward to 2 years later, the customer wants to add a couple of new features. The lead architect along with a couple of developers have since delivery resigned. No big deal right? They are programmers and can find their way around the code if enough time were given. Well, as soon as the solutions opened in Visual Studio, tears/sweat starts dropping down their cheeks as if they have just opened Pandora's box. There are hundreds of files that hang together in a manner that cannot be understood. To make the matter worse, there aren't even any comments written by the code.
This is probably a scenario we have came across at some point in our career. So why do we continue to ignore the importance of having documentations to go along with a software project and fail to dedicate enough resources to get it done in a comprehensive manner? A common answer I have heard was that the documentations were never read. So because the documentations were believed to be useless, we stop writing them and so the negative spiral goes on.
So for all of you who are designing a solution or doing implementations at the moment. Please take a few moments to document what you are doing. A few moment spent by you today will save a lot of moments for others in the future.
This post will follow by another on what kind of documentations are crucial in a software project and some of the key elements that should be included. Stay tuned.
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