Re: Building a documentation knowledgebase

["Mark Baker" <listsub -at- analecta -dot- com>]

> The requirements is all very high level- "put all the information into one
> area - but it has to be suitable for all depts to access" .

That does not sound like a requirement, it sounds like a solution. The
requirement, presumably, is either one of both of:

1. Everybody in the company should be able to access the information they
need to do thier jobs.

2. Documentation should be developed more efficiently.

Putting all the information in one area may or may not be the best way to
meet these requirements. Simply putting all the information in one place,
without making any other changes will almost certainly not provide a
solution to these requirements.

Centralization of information across the enterprise is all the rage right
now. Like every other hot fad, it deserves to be looked at skeptically.

Putting all the information in one place may not help:
* People's real information needs may be largely local, so centralizing
information will not increase their access to what they need.
* People may prefer to ask people for information rather than searching for
documents, so documents may be forwarded by the people who recommend them,
rather than being retrieved from the repository.

Putting all the information in one place may in fact be harmful.
* It may make it less easier to find, because local information finding
clues may be lost.
* If it is harder to file information to the central repository, people may
avoid it, and more information may end up in left personal possession that
might previously have gone into local archives.
* Because correctly filing information is harder in a larger repository,
more information may be misfiled, and correcting and refiling misfiled
information may be harder.
* The system may be harder to adapt to meet new needs if many people have a
stake in it.
* Dealing with the repository may increase costs for all departments without
any compensatory benefits.
* If it is not done correctly, it may turn in a big mess. Replacing several
small messes with one big mess is not very useful.
* It may prevent people from implementing local optimizations of their
information development process that reduce the cost of developing a
particular class of information.

Putting all the information in one place may be overkill:
* A centralized repository may work, but it may prove to be much more
expensive than a simpler, more local solution. Large collection requires
effective librarianship and this is not cheap.

Some things work best when centralized. Some things work best when managed
locally. Note that information does not have to be held centrally to be
accessed globally. The web is a perfect example of highly distributed
discrete information collections that can be accessed using a single search
strategy.

How well information is managed is the key to its usefulness and
accessibility. In many cases it may be managed better and at lower cost if
held locally.

They key, of course, is to start from the real requirements and work forward
to the correct solution.

Mark Baker
Analecta Communications