Last updated: January 10, 2020
At the beginning, you should find out whether there are regulations stipulated by your country’s legislature, by banks, or by insurance companies that need to be taken into account in your IT documentation. Do not forget your company’s stakeholders! You can be sure that some legal requirements do exist and see that a IT documentation is not only “nice to have”, but is a necessity and can deliver added value.
Things always seem to happen when you least expect them
You certainly know this situation: All of a sudden, the IT department is confronted with a requirement never heard of before. The question at that moment is: “Couldn’t this have been communicated before?” Of, course, this would have been possible, but since when is it common practice to inform IT beforehand? The same is true for the demand for an IT documentation. Will anybody think of letting IT staff know that an auditor is around in the company? This just may happen, because the auditor will need to have access to certain information. But if that person comes up with questions to IT staff – will you be prepared for them? Even if you were told beforehand, time might be tight if you have never dedicated yourself to this topic before. Good luck if you cannot present a number of comprehensive documents! The auditors will assume that a corresponding history exists, because, after all, you must have provided for this during all those years. So you can be sure to come across something when looking for legal aspects and requirements.
Do not forget the requirements of third parties!
Depending on the industry your company is active in, further requirements might exist. In addition, your customers or service providers might have demands that you must meet. But do not let yourself be put off by this! Just start your project. Software providers might at any time come around and inquire about your software usage. Data protection authorities ask for information about compliance with data protection acts. This does not only apply to corporate groups, but to companies of any size.
Define your goals right at the beginning
Define right at the beginning which goals you would like to achieve with your IT documentation. Documentation for documentation’s sake, only to have it available? Or a documentation that will provide real benefit to the company and effectively creates added value? Just start. And use your new insights as input for the second run. In the first step, it is important that you really take the first step to create your own IT documentation. This serves as a perfect basis for later optimizations.
Your goal should be to start soon and refine your IT documentation later. This will lead to high-quality documentation which can stand any examination by third parties. And what is more, you can refer to the history, showing that you have been taking care of this topic for a long time.
There is no reason to postpone the start of this project.