One of the top enterprise IT complaints is that a serious lack of documentation — especially for legacy systems’ homegrown code — makes operations much more complex and riskier than they need be.
What’s rarely discussed are the reasons why there’s such a severe documentation shortage. The sad truth is that the blame mostly lies with IT managers — particularly those in charge back when the coding happened and the documentation didn’t. (Before you judge your predecessors’ predecessors too harshly, how often do you insist that current coding efforts under your authority have comprehensive and accurate documentation?)
The documentation problem starts with a simple fact: Developers hate documenting their work — and they hate it for multiple reasons.
One of the top enterprise IT complaints is that a serious lack of documentation — especially for legacy systems’ homegrown code — makes operations much more complex and riskier than they need be.
What’s rarely discussed are the reasons why there’s such a severe documentation shortage.
The sad truth is that the blame mostly lies with IT managers — particularly those in charge back when the coding happened and the documentation didn’t.
(Before you judge your predecessors’ predecessors too harshly, how often do you insist that current coding efforts under your authority have comprehensive and accurate documentation?)
The documentation problem starts with a simple fact: Developers hate documenting their work — and they hate it for multiple reasons.
One of the top enterprise IT complaints is that a serious lack of documentation — especially for legacy systems’ homegrown code — makes operations much more complex and riskier than they need be.
What’s rarely discussed are the reasons why there’s such a severe documentation shortage. The sad truth is that the blame mostly lies with IT managers — particularly those in charge back when the coding happened and the documentation didn’t. (Before you judge your predecessors’ predecessors too harshly, how often do you insist that current coding efforts under your authority have comprehensive and accurate documentation?)
The documentation problem starts with a simple fact: Developers hate documenting their work — and they hate it for multiple reasons.
