If It's Not Written, It's Not Happening¶

What is it?¶

Anything you fail to document in the right way, or obtain the needed review for, may as well not be happening.

Why?¶

Managing Up: Your managers and peers need to know what you are doing and that it's valuable, feasible and aligned with necessary stakeholders. Otherwise you will lose trust, resources, publicity and personal credit, leading to project failure.
Managing Down: Your team needs a point of reference for the plan, and proof of commitment from all stakeholders (including themselves). Anything you fail to document, will be replaced by assumptions, guesses, or repeated realignment.
Managing Partners: Your partners need to manage up & down. They need to know what to expect and have a chance to provide feedback. Beyond that, they may need to demonstrate leadership of their own. Documenting their agreement is how you deliver the artifacts they need.
Managing Customers: If the users of your system have not been consulted & studied, or that study has not been documented, then you can't show that you know what problem to solve. This is bad both practically and optically.

Guideline¶

Follow a strict process to ensure you obtain all the needed approvals and reviews. You must adapt this process to meet the conventions of your workplace.

Requirements Gathering: Include your customers in the requirements gathering process. See also Solve the Right Problem.
Design: Include your partners and team in the design process.
Roadmapping: Include your managers and partners when it's time to align a roadmap and resourcing.
Progress: Maintain periodic progress reports to all stakeholders.
Milestones: Celebrate the wins and call out lessons learned, when you reach a milestone.
Adjustments: Any major change to the above should include the same stakeholders again. It will often be worth creating a new document & linking the old.