jason@lanum.com
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© 2025 Jason Lanum
When a product fails people notice; calls are made, tickets are created, meetings are scheduled, resources are allocated. When documentation fails it rarely elicits anything above a low-priority email. Document errors are infrequent and with few exceptions do not create significant problems. However, errors have costs that while difficult to quantify are very real. Outdated data in reference materials can pollute datasets. Inaccurate information in API documentation can lead to problems in development. Unclear instructions in user manuals can create a backlog in support. Missing information is the most difficult to detect, as it is an ‘unknown unknown’, and posses significant risk.* Organizations need to establish oversight in every department with managers and team leaders who can coordinate with their personnel and enact strategies for documentation updates and maintenance. Training should be designed and instituted that teaches employees how formulate a holistic view of documentation with an eye towards identifying deficiencies and possible blind spots. An organization benefits when every employee has input on every document they create or consult and ensure that problems are addressed before costs begin to mount.
* When engineers first brought online the Multiple Virtual Storage (MVS) operating system for the System/370 it failed to start. When they went to consult the process flow to diagnose the problem they discover no documentation had been created. The engineers were forced to laboriously recreate the process step-by-step, failure-by-failure which cost them a week of lost time.
jason@lanum.com
323-594-2999
© 2025 Jason Lanum