Most business leaders agree that documentation is a good business practice. It improves efficiency, consistency and clarity while providing a reference point for risk mitigation. Few, however, understand the power that documentation has to increase the value of their companies.
It’s that simple. You hear about the importance of documentation, but to truly get on board, and get your team on board for that matter, you need to understand exactly why documentation is such an integral aspect of your business. Documentation is simply a habit, commitment and a discipline and contrary to what many may think, it does not require great effort but require on-going process…read more on low performing IT Department
Process of Documentation – Implement systems to document technology
Traditional vs Modern approach: Traditional approach to IT documentation has been that consultant or IT Staff will document their work as they complete IT projects or tasks. However, modern technology configurations and implementations change so frequently that documentation becomes obsolete in few days. To address this challenge, system generated reports is an approach to implement and deploy systems and applications in such a state that you can obtain all documentation by click of a button. More importantly, technology matured so much over the past few years, that not only it provides all required documentation on-demand but also capability to translate IT documentation in a business language for decision makers to understand for their decision process.
3 Critical Technology (IT) documents
Turnovers and IT Staff Training: As any other business areas, turnover in IT Departments in unavoidable. However, how do you train new staff? How long would it take for new staff to start producing work after learning your current infrastructure, procedures, policies etc. Studies shows that providing documentation and training to new staff will increase your profit, employee retention and lower business risks…read more on business risks
IT Strategy and Roadmap: IT strategy is a comprehensive plan that outlines how technology should be used to meet IT and business goals. An IT strategy, also called a technology strategy or IT/technology strategic plan, is a written document that details the multiple factors that affect the organization's investment in and use of technology. Business leaders understand that without roadmap and plan to execute IT Strategy, is a wishful think to achieve desire business goals. Technology roadmap provides that communication framework for organization to be on the same page…read more on soft cost
PSPG (Policies, Standards, Procedures & Guidelines): IT Security policies are the foundation of organizational security strategy and are considered “best practices” for IT departments of any size. They are the basis for security design, architecture, implementation, and practices. IT policies help organizations to properly articulate the organization’s desired behavior, mitigate risk and contribute to achieving the organization’s goals i.e Security Standards/Policy, Hardware/Software Procurement etc.
Other documentation:
- Performance and Process Measure
- Compliance & Regulations
- System Documentation
- Application Deployment and Training
- Security Standards, Guidelines & Policies
- User Documentation - Training
Next steps? Issues around documentation is not a one-time issue that can be dealt as a project or task. You need on-going process to maintain and improve your documentation.
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Also review – Impact on Revenue blog
