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I took a job for a large insurance provider about two
weeks ago and the primary focus of the job is
documenting what they refer to as their "Internet
Architecture."
What they want is a technical reference manual for
programmers and developers which documents their
system of servers, mainframes, routers, ATM switches,
applications, etc. Further they want this manual to
be documented down to the "file level" of detail and
have a variety of diagrams and tables in addition to
the usual narrative content. The system is used
primarily for quoting, managing, and underwriting
insurance policies.
The clincher is that they have little more than
diagrams to start the project with. Most of the
information is supposed to be garnished by
interviewing the programmers and developers. To make
it even more interesting almost all of them are
located out of state. They also have no standards,
style sheets, or document repository in place to track
any changes which might occur while I am documenting
this.
In my nine years of doing technical writing I must say
I have never seen anything as daunting as this.
Although I have done projects with nothing but the
application to be documented, this is much much
bigger.
I have pointed out that we need to establish the
document repository (Lotus Notes Domino) before really
digging into the documentation of the architecture.
Luckily the manager had the good sense to agree.
What I need now are some ideas of how to attack this
project, flesh out a game plan, and figure out what
kinds of questions to ask the programmers and
developers. They've given me a "contact person" to
funnel questions and requests through.
Please don't tell me to abandon the job. The economy
is very bad and I had to fight to get this job. So I
have to make this work.
Can anyone help me with ideas of how to attack this
monster?
Any suggestions of books to reference on a good
approach to take?
What kinds of questions should I ask?
Thanks for all the help.
- Anthony
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