Documentation

I just got done doing a documentation project. If there is one thing I dread doing is documentation. It is boring work and when you are in the midst of writing and dissecting someone else's code and you look outside at a beautiful day, you just want to jump up and leave.

I finished the project on time and under budget. I went to the project wrap meeting and the people involved with the databases were passing them on to a new group. Everyone was thankful to have the documents and the descriptions. It had not been done for these databases and there had been many developers with their hands in these databases. The work I did turned out to be very worth while for the organization.

As I was working on the project I realized so many mistakes that had happened during the development. When you pick apart a database you get a feel for what had happened during coding. If the developers had documented as they went along, most of the problems could have been avoided. Also, the need to pay me to do the documentation would not have been necessary.

I guess the moral of the story is to do your documentation and do it diligently. It will save you time and money over the long run and the next time you see one of my systems.... good luck finding the supporting document :)