We are living in better times though- more than a decade ago we used to write BRD ( Business Requirements Docuemntation ), SRS ( Software Requirements Specifications ) , FRD ( Functional Requirements Documents ) which took months to elicit, analyze, draft and relentlessly pursue sign off. Which is why people took a U-turn and ran the other way whenever they spotted us ( am sure its not just me :-) ) .
Then came Agile with its path breaking - no to little documentation philosophy and everyone was more than eager to jump onto it, BAs included. A decade of Agile projects later, I still believe the minimal documentation prophecies of Agile that relies heavily on verbal communication doesn't board well for long term maintenance. And hence my belief that hybrid documentation - key decision logs, meeting notes, succinct user story descriptions are the key to good product development and maintenance.
The Japanese theories of 'Just In Time' and 'Just Enough' are invaluable and apply equally well to documentation. Too much documentation is draining and at times creates a polar effect too. This is my all time favorite example of OTT ( Over The Top ) documentation :
I mean the (left) is so important and necessary !!
And its not just software documentation that's getting better as we speak, ( eg BDD scenarios are so much better than elaborate use case documentation ) its the auxiliary documentation too that startups are experimenting with. I absolutely love Slack's release notes - hands down the best ones I've ever read !! It makes the users look forward to a release and atleast read those. Check it out : (https://slack.com/release-notes/windows)
Here are a few :
- Unread badges, which had been being a little inconsistent, have been given a stern talking to, and promise to be more reliable henceforth.
- Copying an email link will now, as you might expect, copy the email link.
- Now you can download a file from Slack, delete it, and then download it again. If that seems like the way the Slack should’ve always worked, well, you aren’t wrong.
- Right clicking “something” and choosing “Search with Google” had a tendency to search for “so”, “me”, or “thing.” It will now search for the entire text. So if you really do want to Google “something” (or something else), we’ll have your back.
- Images sometimes were appearing in notifications, contrary to the wishes of those who had chosen to hide message previews. This is now fixed, your wishes respected.
- On some Windows 7 systems, Slack kept Windows from shutting down without making a fuss. It’ll now let your system shut down in peace.
Here's to more readable, effective and enjoyable documentation !