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Subject:Re: A Long Time Ago From:Richard Lewis <tech44writer -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:John Posada <jposada01 -at- yahoo -dot- com>, Jay Maechtlen <techwriter -at- covad -dot- net>, vrfour -at- verizon -dot- net, TechWrl list <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Tue, 18 Sep 2007 09:18:30 -0700 (PDT)
You are right in saying that documenting the entire As-Is often takes too long. The important thing is to document the essential As-Is. This core essential functionality is generally unchanging. Businesses generally do not change their essential (i.e, technology independent) functionality.
Generic Richard
John Posada <jposada01 -at- yahoo -dot- com> wrote:
> The importance of the As-Is used to be widely recognized. Now, most
> seem unaware of As-Is documentation. Indeed, look at the current tool
> popular tool for functional modely - Use Cases. As they are typically, employed,
> the analyst forgets about the As-Is and jumps right into the To-Be. And everyone
> sits around and says Gee Wizzz, I just don't get we can not get away from so much hacking.
Not my experience, both from the standpoint of Use Cases and System Descriptions. The problem with As Is documentation is it must be maintained and it is more maintenance labor intensive than any other type of document. Everytime a change is implement, the As Is stuff must be updated.. Otherwise, As is becomes As it Used to Be.
At a gig not too long ago, I was brought in to document the As Is. 18 months later, I left them with over 5,000 pages/11 binders....right down to the server and what was on the server, over 67 processes for order fulfillment (it was the secoind largest online book retailer), and database, right down to the server-to-server replication process (over 100 database servers). That was about four years ago. I couldn't even begin to estimate how much of it still resembles the As Is...my guess is less than 10%.
John Posada
Senior Technical Writer
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