You know this chapter isn’t going to tell you anything you don’t already know—as technologists, documentation is the one area where we fail terribly. It is rare to encounter a company who has adequate documentation—they’re all full of good intentions, but nothing is written down.
Documentation is like test cases: you can never have too much. Though, what is the right level? How do you know whether you have the right amount?
In this chapter, we are going to highlight the areas that need at least a cursory level of documentation and the areas that need more thorough detail, including those that are crucial to the smooth running and continuity of your team. Although this is not an exhaustive list by any stretch, it does serve to get you thinking about
the types of documentation that you should consider to support the systems powering your organization beyond the working lifetime of each member of your team.