Top ten things you need to do in order to get your networks documented….I’ve seen the lists around the web. They cover the must-do’s and the nice-to-have’s: where do you start documenting. what data do you need to collect, which tools do you need? There’s one thing, however, that all of these lists are missing…and it’s a biggie.
If you really want to create network documentation for your networks, you need to make sure you do this one thing first: buy in. Buy in? Yep. Buying in to documenting the networks needs to come from the top down. You can say to yourself: “I’ll just start on this part…do a little every day…eventually, I’ll have great documentation.” Dream on. Reality will, sooner than later, rear its ugly head and remind you, “you have all these projects to finish and there’s no time for that.” You’ll miss a day…you’ll miss another day…and you’ll end up with outdated documents you simply don’t have the time or capacity to update. Despite your best efforts….the next time there’s an outage somewhere, you’ll end up with outdated documents that don’t help you solve the problem.
Network Documentation: How to Really Buy In
Define Outcomes
Go into your network documentation with clearly defined needs. What is the ultimate goal of documenting the network? Define what you need to get out of this project, explain how this will help your company’s bottom line — and bring these outcomes to your key stakeholders.
Allocate Resources
If you are going to document the network, treat it like any other project. Give it the resources it needs: planning, time, and budget. Be sure that all of the players that will need it also ‘buy in’ to this project.
Get Real
Face it: network documentation is not a one time thing. The network is constantly changing….and your documentation should follow suit. Network documentation, when done right, is a perpetual project that will need ongoing attention. You can plant the seeds and grow it, but once you’ve done that — it still needs sunlight and water.
Bottom line? Go forth and document….but get some ‘buy in’ from your colleagues first. Once you start documenting, you never stop documenting. You can highly automate documentation (always a good thing), but even that will need some TLC (tender loving care) every now and then.