Reversing The Process

When development outpaces documentation a company can find itself dangerously exposed

When a company starts becoming successful its growth can exceed its ability to cope. Whilst success is an enviable position to be in, it provides challenges that are not always immediately evident. People become stretched, processes that worked in the past don't scale, and time becomes a major issue. Often there is no longer enough time to do things that may have been possible in the past. Routine tasks, that have little immediate impact on delivery of the product or service, are rescheduled "until things calm down a bit". All too often, documentation comes top of that list.

A company audit can reveal that:

Our software design documentation was never formalised or completed.
The build processes are known to a privileged few.
An informal development process means definitive guidance is difficult to achieve.
Operational processes are dependant on a few key personnel.

The company is now exposed.

What if the available resources are no longer available? Valuable knowledge can be lost or diluted; time is spent re-learning processes or processes are just not as tight as they once were. Now, the question is where to start?

Where do our customers start … by contacting Atrial Systems.

We have been able to help customers who have found themselves in one or more of the above scenarios.

This involved starting initially with a small area requiring documentation, and using this to gain knowledge of the customer's products and services, and to build confidence in Atrial's abilities to deliver. Once this stage was completed then other larger areas were considered.

Experienced consultants were able to sit down with key personnel and gather information on:

Data input

What data is required for the next stage of the process to commence?
What are the major dependencies?
Who is responsible for supplying the data?
What are the deadlines?
Where are the risks?

Processes

What steps are required at this stage?
Who is responsible?
How is the data processed?

Data Output

What outputs are expected?
Who verifies the output?
What is the next stage?
Who is responsible?
What are the deadlines?

A document was prepared outlining the operational processes ensuring vital company knowledge would not be lost. The documentation could also be used to train new staff members, with the added benefit of cementing the processes into the company culture. The value to the customer was self-evident and other processes and areas are being documented.

In addition, the knowledge gained and the documentation produced has laid a basis for future work on software development with the same customer as the learning curve has already been partially climbed.