>I've worked in multiple* companies where the problem was too much documentation, and of course everyone was afraid to update or ghasps*
That must be nice. I've yet to work on a company where half my time wasn't trying to prod for some resource (be it internal code, a public 3rd party tool, or even the resource itself), sometimes playing a game of goose just to figure out who knows the author. I'd love too much documentation.
But I understand your point. The only thing worse than no documentation is wrong documentation, and outdated docs half the time can become outright wrong half the time, if it isn't simply encouraging outdated but functional practices. Tech writers are highly undervalued for that purpose.
I should also mention that the ability to properly search for docs is almost more important than the doc itself. Some companies had wikis but good luck searching for the right keywords if you didn't know the exact title. A properly categorized top level page could have helped a lot (and is probably easier/cheaper than integrating google like searchabilty into an internal database).
> The only thing worse than no documentation is wrong documentation
Yeah, that was the exact problem. One was a startup and when I joined it was all mostly up-to-date so it was great! But by the time I left (after 2 major migrations) most of it was out of date and a nightmare to find anything updated, any script that could still be run, etc.
That must be nice. I've yet to work on a company where half my time wasn't trying to prod for some resource (be it internal code, a public 3rd party tool, or even the resource itself), sometimes playing a game of goose just to figure out who knows the author. I'd love too much documentation.
But I understand your point. The only thing worse than no documentation is wrong documentation, and outdated docs half the time can become outright wrong half the time, if it isn't simply encouraging outdated but functional practices. Tech writers are highly undervalued for that purpose.
I should also mention that the ability to properly search for docs is almost more important than the doc itself. Some companies had wikis but good luck searching for the right keywords if you didn't know the exact title. A properly categorized top level page could have helped a lot (and is probably easier/cheaper than integrating google like searchabilty into an internal database).