Process lessons from software development: The importance of process documentation

There are few industries as fast-moving and rapidly changing as software development. From the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) in recent years to the ever-increasing processing power of modern computers, it’s little wonder that software development happens at a breakneck pace. The problem with creating new and exciting solutions at such a velocity is that, often, there’s less appetite for capturing the work that’s being done in supporting documentation.

In the foreword to Docs for Developers, former Google engineer Kelsey Hightower says: “If developers are the superheroes of the software industry, then the lack of documentation is our kryptonite.” Software architects are so busy building the solutions that few have time to record the “what” and “how” of their designs outside a few comments buried in the code. Anyone who has worked on a digital transformation project with legacy software will tell you that there are significant problems that come with that approach.

The importance of process documentation

The same is true in any industry though. Regardless of the field of business, a passion for innovation and maximizing the latest opportunities will often outstrip the appetite for recording and documenting the ways to get there. Unfortunately, those processes and procedures are an essential part of the scaffolding that will support any new endeavor, and while immediate breakthroughs might be exciting, sustaining success needs a much stronger foundation. Just like in software development, process documentation is a vital part of the whole exercise, and we can see some of the reasons for that in the IT world.

Many software developers, especially in the startup world, adhere to the old Facebook mantra of “move fast and break things.” The industry thrives on rapid iteration that closely resembles the continuous improvement cycle. Bugs are identified, solutions are developed, patches are rolled out and more bugs are targeted. The challenge though is finding those bugs sometimes. Where is the function that handles that data point? How often is it called? Where else does it touch the code? While identifying a breakdown may be easy, finding the causes becomes a challenge when there’s no framework of documentation to point to how the many, many moving parts relate to one another. The same is true with our business processes. When an inefficiency is identified, good process documentation helps identify every part of the operation that will be impacted by a change and allows process managers to integrate those elements into a solution. Without good process documentation, every fix becomes an exercise in firefighting rather than truly improving your business.

When a software fix is rolled out it’s often documented, but patch notes aren’t always compiled or integrated into the overall documentation. That means that when the next engineer needs to touch that part of the code, they must decipher the original and any subsequent additions. The final software product may function quite differently than the initial design, at least under the surface, so the design documents won’t be much help when issues need to be diagnosed or improvements considered.

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Process documentation must be kept up to date

The parallel with business processes is clear: As processes are changed, the process documentation needs to be kept up to date to allow for ongoing troubleshooting. Like in the software industry, hardware, tools, systems and methodologies are all subject to change. If business processes aren’t kept up to date, when external forces require changes in our operations, businesses will be scrambling to identify what needs fixing to accommodate the updates, and where they will have an impact. The potential for something slipping through the cracks and creating chaos is high.

The cost of that chaos can be more than just an error message. Good documentation in software is just as important for compliance as completion. The FDA publishes comprehensive requirements not just for medical software, but for the documentation that supports it, and a few notes in the code won’t cut it. Technology, particularly software, evolves rapidly, but in order to be fit for purpose it needs to meet the requirements it was created for. The constraints that govern that may be industry-based, regulatory or set by customer expectations, but they need to shape the product and the only way to ensure that is with good documentation.

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Without effective and clear processes, our operations can similarly miss the mark on key compliance benchmarks. When processes evolve without intentional records, gaps, flaws and non-compliance issues can easily creep in unnoticed. The potential for breakdowns is real and can lead to significant consequences. Good processes identify those gaps and help teams to close them, ensuring quality outcomes and reduced risks for business operations.

In today’s business world, software development continues to lead the charge in new ways of working. The exciting emergence of new technologies is inspiring, but we can’t afford to forget that even the most innovative new solutions need effective documentation underpinning them to be sustainable. That’s an important element we should all seek to emulate, with clear, well-documented processes as the foundation of any initiative we undertake.