4 ms·

People basically used Scrum or that part from the Agile manifesto as a get out of jail free card for not doing any documentation. Probably the single worst thin

People basically used Scrum or that part from the Agile manifesto as a get out of jail free card for not doing any documentation. Probably the single worst thing that ever happened in the history of software development.

slt2021 4y ago
Documentation task could be included as part of sprint / or task Definition of done. In true Scrum spirit, the team that has problems with lack of documentation, should figure that out from (1) retrospective, and start (2) including that work in Sprint explicitly, and (3) to explain to business owner that without these tasks, features are gonna get delivered 3x slower. Benefits: documentation/testing will be explicitly required as a requirement, time will be allocated and accounted for, business and stakeholders will be aligned on that. This doesn't happen because scrum leaders never care enough about the product, but at places where they do care it is well documented and structured
- nrclark 4y ago
  I've heard that suggestion a few times - just plan for documentation in your sprint. It's a nice idea. I've never seen it done though.
- AtNightWeCode 4y ago
  What works best from my experience is to include documentation in the DOD. Most of the time if you build a feature there are emails, tickets, notes from meetings etc. To write the docs is just a quick editing job in many cases.
ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
I write inline documentation. It's usually headerdoc-style stuff. Tools like Jazzy, DocC, and Doxygen make it very useful[0]. I'll often write the documentation before the functionality. When I'm done, I run Jazzy, and I have an indexed, navigable, relevant, up-to-date document set. I point GH Pages at it, and voila! You have a well-documented codebase. It also encourages brevity and keeps the focus local. [0] https://littlegreenviper.com/miscellany/leaving-a-legacy/ https://littlegreenviper.com/miscellany/leaving-a-legacy/

slt2021 4y ago

Documentation task could be included as part of sprint / or task Definition of done. In true Scrum spirit, the team that has problems with lack of documentation, should figure that out from (1) retrospective, and start (2) including that work in Sprint explicitly, and (3) to explain to business owner that without these tasks, features are gonna get delivered 3x slower. Benefits: documentation/testing will be explicitly required as a requirement, time will be allocated and accounted for, business and stakeholders will be aligned on that. This doesn't happen because scrum leaders never care enough about the product, but at places where they do care it is well documented and structured

nrclark 4y ago
I've heard that suggestion a few times - just plan for documentation in your sprint. It's a nice idea. I've never seen it done though.
AtNightWeCode 4y ago
What works best from my experience is to include documentation in the DOD. Most of the time if you build a feature there are emails, tickets, notes from meetings etc. To write the docs is just a quick editing job in many cases.

ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago

I write inline documentation. It's usually headerdoc-style stuff. Tools like Jazzy, DocC, and Doxygen make it very useful[0]. I'll often write the documentation before the functionality. When I'm done, I run Jazzy, and I have an indexed, navigable, relevant, up-to-date document set. I point GH Pages at it, and voila! You have a well-documented codebase. It also encourages brevity and keeps the focus local. [0] https://littlegreenviper.com/miscellany/leaving-a-legacy/ https://littlegreenviper.com/miscellany/leaving-a-legacy/