> Have systems gotten so messy and complicated that we build them without knowing they're actually doing, until after they're built? Oh, hey, you've just pract

> Have systems gotten so messy and complicated that we build them without knowing they're actually doing, until after they're built? Oh, hey, you've just practically described one popular implicit formulation of Agile. :) Detailed and coherent design documentation is rare in my experience, even at organizations that are staffed at a level including dedicated staff ostensibly for this purpose. I can think of precisely one place I've worked for that had a design process that produced documentation effective for specifying the project ahead of time and as a reference from then on out. A culture committed to this plus dedicated technical writers who regularly met with a team of a domain expert, tech lead, and UX/UI folks for the purpose of producing project documentation helped a lot. Other organizations may have had individuals producing documentation but it was a lossy process, magnified when they moved on from the project.