What My Water Heater Can Teach You About Your Documentation

My water heater can teach you about best practices in documentation…

My water heater is leaking very slowly…

Apparently, it’s been leaking for a while…so I’m lucky there is no significant damage…yet.

No one in my household is an expert in hot water heater replacement, so I called an expert.

That’s what you do.

Your Documentation Today

Look at your current documentation as it exists today.   You haven’t updated it in a while, but you need to do that. It’s on your list… but it’s way down on the list.

You keep saying you’re going to fix it…update it….????. ????.

As time goes by, your documentation becomes slowly outdated…It may be considered adequate. ????. ????. ????.

Your internal and outside stakeholders are having issues with your documentation…They may have to ask another employee or call your customer service or bug your IT department.

????. ????. ????.

Or they make their own executive decision based on what they are reading in your documents—hoping it falls within your rules and regulations.  

????. ????. ????.

But there will come a time when your documentation doesn’t really work. The drips have now become water puddles.

??????. ??????. ??????.

Now, beach towels won’t be able to clean up your water puddles of outdated documentation. And these water puddles will lead to bigger problems. 

Outdated Documentation Snowballs Into Bigger Issues

They always do…

???? ????? ????? ??.

>>>??? ????????? ???? ???? ???? ?????????, ????????, ??? ?????????? ???? ???? ??? ??????? ???????????.    They are gone…now who do you go to for your documentation?

>>>????…???? ????? ??? ?? ??????????? ?? ??? ?? ???  Nope, they retired. In fact, ALL the people that had the tribal knowledge of your documentation retired…3 years ago. They are now playing golf in Florida.

>>>???? ????????????? ?? ?? ????????, ???? ??’? ????????. You don’t even use the system anymore—you’ve upgraded to another platform last year.

What do you do now?

 STOP the dripping and the water puddles.

Reach out to docstrats, the experts in documentation and technical writing. They can #makeithappen for you.

For over 40 years, public and private companies have trusted docstrats.   You reap the benefits of our experience and the collective knowledge of our in-house experts.  Whether you are looking for help with technical documentation and writing or need to feel a specific role, we are here to make it happen. 

Let me know if I can help you.

You can reach me at kim.jacobs@docstrats.com