Did the dog eat your documentation? Sometime I find myself asking this question silently in my head. While not vital, it is an important part of the IT process. I cannot tell you how many times I have been burned dealing with incomplete, out of date or non-existent documentation. Documenting should be a fundamental part of your IT process. Can you get things done without it? I wouldn’t say it’s done if there is no documentation, but you can have things up and running. Then, of course, you are the only one who truly knows what you have done.

That brings me to one of the biggest excuses I have heard for not documenting, from the wonderful masses of IT techs. If I am the only one who knows how it’s done, I am indispensable to the client/company. I think that’s a bunch of bull. Personally I believe you have just made yourself a serious liability. You just made yourself the single point of failure for whatever system you have just stood up. You have also ‘volunteered’ to possibly be the only source of support for that system. If it is business critical, or 24\7 say goodbye to evenings, weekends and holidays, and pray your guild understands your newfound lack of commitment to WoW.

Documentation is not something you should be leaving for interns or the new guy. That new guy or intern didn’t build/setup this system. They will never know exactly what you did. It would be nice if there was only one way to skin the IT cat. Unfortunately that is not the case. Some builds\setups differently because devices or software didn’t act quite as advertised, but often time you set it up that way just because you are smarter than everyone else. Well, Jedi, even though you are strong in the force, you are still part of a team. Good complete documentation helps the IT department run like a well-oiled machine, it can help spread out workload thereby reducing stress. It can keep other techs from putting a price on your head, because working on your system made them feel like a cross-eyed mentally challenged person.

Please document, if not for me, at least do it so John Connor can shut things down when the time comes.