Confidence, Documentation and More
Sep 19, 10:04 AM
37 Signals have just posted an interesting article about having confidence in People, Process and Purpose
There is much that I agree with in this post, but some things that I am not so sure about.
Some companies try to manufacture confidence. They use specs, documents, and process as things to lean on. These crutches give them a false confidence that nothing will go terribly wrong.
The problem is when you build confidence with documents and all that, you are nailing yourself down to assumptions that are probably wrong (assumptions always seem to fall by the wayside once things get real). Yeah, you may feel better that you have a recipe written down. But if it’s a recipe for failure, what’s the point?
While it is certainly possible for documentation to provide a crutch that provides only false confidence, I don’t think that this is sufficient reason to abandon documentation entirely.
I think that there is a great deal of merit in doing the right documentation and then using the documents properly.
My philosophy is simple:
- At the start of a project, do the right amount of documentation. No more, no less. (It is entirely up to you what you think the “right amount” is – it is your project).
- Use this documentation as a starting point, not as a cast-in-stone blueprint that must always be obeyed.
Always try to remember the desired end-result of your project. If deviating from what is written in the documentation will produce a better website / application / whatever, go ahead and deviate from the documentation.
If you think that you can do things faster and better by abandoning documentation altogether, by all means go ahead and do that. This approach does not usually work for me, but it works for 37 Signals.
