Introduction
Have you ever wondered why project documentation is so important? Well, here's the answer: it helps keep everyone on the same page. And if you don't have a written plan of action, how do you know what everyone's supposed to be doing? Plus, project documentation can help prevent costly mistakes down the road by giving all stakeholders—from marketing to engineering—a clear sense of direction. So whether you're an employee tasked with managing projects or leading one yourself, this article will help you with why project documentation matters and how best to get started with this important aspect of your project!
Definition
You might have heard the term project documentation before, but what does it mean? Project documentation is a collection of documents that describes the project and its deliverables. This documentation can be in written, video, or audio format. Project documentation is a valuable asset because it provides evidence for any decisions made during the course of the project. It helps you communicate with your team, stakeholders and other audiences about:
- The project's goals and objectives
- The steps taken in order to accomplish these goals
- The people involved in achieving them
Why You Should Care About Project Documentation?
- Because it helps you to better understand the project. When you are new to a project, it can be hard to keep all of your tasks and responsibilities straight. Project documentation provides a central location for all of this information so that you can refer back to it as needed.
- Because it helps you to better understand the goals of the project. If something doesn't make sense or if there is something missing from the documentation, then maybe this will be apparent when reviewing the goals of them project. You may even find that what seems like an extraneous goal actually makes sense when viewed in context with other more important ones!
- Because it helps you to better understand the project requirements: This goes along with understanding why certain things need to be done during each phase of development (e.g., Requirements Gathering).
Project documentation is a critical part of any project.
The Benefits of Project Documentation
- Project documentation helps you to manage and monitor the project.
- Project documentation helps you to track and report on the project.
- Project documentation helps you to communicate with the project team.
- Project documentation helps you to manage the project scope.
- Project documentation helps you to manage the project budget
How to Get Started with Project Documentation?
Start with a template
- The first step in documenting your project is to create a template. This will help you keep everything organized and make sure your documentation is consistent throughout the entire process.
Keep it simple
- There are lots of tools out there that allow you to create beautifully designed documents, but this isn't what we're going for here! While it's great if you have access to some fancy software, the important thing is whether or not your project documentation is clear, concise and easy-to-understand (and actually gets read). If there's too much going on in the document itself, people won't be able to absorb all of the information they need quickly enough before moving onto something else (or leaving altogether).
The idea is not to create a long, exhaustive document that eventually no one reads.
It’s not about creating a long, exhaustive document that eventually no one reads. Good project documentation should be precise and actionable. Let’s take a look at how to make it happen:
- Concise: Project documentation should be concise and easy to read. Yes, it's important for the documentation to be thorough and complete, but the idea is not to create a long, exhaustive document that eventually no one reads. Good project documentation should be precise and actionable.
- Easy access: Project documentation should be easy to access. It doesn't do you much good if your project documents are locked away on a private server somewhere—you need them readily available in case someone has questions about what happened or needs information about something they did not witness firsthand (or at all).
- Easy to update: Project documentation should be easy to update. Project documents are living things; they change over time as new information becomes available or as people come up with new ideas for how things could work differently in the future.
- Avoid confusion: Project Documentation should be easy to avoid confusion when multiple people are working on projects together simultaneously.
Conclusion
The documentation is the key to project success, but it’s not as simple as it sounds. It takes careful planning and time to create a good documentation plan. You have to decide what information should go into the document and how to organize it all. It can be challenging, but with the right tools you can create an effective project plan that keeps everyone on track!