Advice for Small Business Owners

Complete Without Documentation is Not Complete

By Elie Kochman on July 12th, 2010

There are several components to every project, and there’s one particular component that will cause many participants in the project effort to groan, and that’s documentation. Having worked for a company where the effort to document could often exceed the effort to implement, I’m quite familiar with the feeling of frustration when it comes to documenting work.

That being said, I still believe that it is absolutely necessary to document projects at some level, though the effort should be such that it’s relative to both the amount of work in the project and the nature of the work being documented. A change to some wording on the company’s website would not require the same documentation as a complete overhaul of the approval process for making purchases over $100,000. Both, however, should be documented.

There are several reasons for this.

The first is to provide a way of keeping track of what changed. For this, a simple email, or filling out a brief form, could suffice in most cases.

The second is to ensure that those who need to know about the change are kept informed. This is not so much what is documented as much as it is about ensuring that the documentation is stored appropriately, and includes requirements to notify the appropriate people.

The third reason is for accountability. By having a person, or group of people, sign a piece of documentation, they take ownership of the contents of the document. In case an issue comes up, you will know who to discuss it with (this isn’t about blame, it’s about open and effective communication). The side effect is that people will become reluctant to sign documents without being aware of the contents.

Fourth, it helps you organize your thoughts about the project, and to make sure that items are not missed, or are explained as to why they were not completed.

Is your project done? Only if it was documented.

Related posts:

1. How Much Paperwork is Enough?
2. Lessons Learned from the Corporate World
3. Generation WHY
4. Writing Proposals
5. Striving for Perfection