At work today, I noticed (not for the first time, but it’s under my skin now) a severe lack of documentation.. of ANYTHING. Servers, our environment, procedures, policies, code, applications… you name it, you won’t find it.
I won’t deny that I have been a tool in the lack of documentation. It just so happens I came here there wasn’t any and there still really isn’t any. During 8 months and countless projects that I have been working on here I have had some opportunity to write documentation, but it never seemed a priority in the project timelines and was never required as a deliverable. As time has crept on I admittedly haven’t been as diligent as I should have in completing or creating appropriate documentation.
Now that it’s really under my skin and I have some freer time, I’ve decided to get back on that train.
I’ve implemented trusty Trac as our/my project management tool. My goal was to use it for bug tracking, wiki, project timelines, roadmaps, and source code browser. Alas this small company mentality just doesn’t seem to see the value in it. I’m not sure what it is…. does it scare them, do they think “it’s not for me it’s an IT thing”. I feel I have clearly communicated it’s importance and benefits. While it has caught on with a few for bug tracking at least, it’s still (for me) very beneficial in doing what it’s supposed to do. It keeps me sane and without it I’d probably be lost.
I am hoping to make a good dent in it over the next week or so, although there is so much to do I’m not sure how far I’ll get. I guess I look at it as a opportunity to freshen up and extend my documentation writing skills.