On Tue, 2 Oct 2001, Sam Vilain wrote: > On Mon, 1 Oct 2001 14:31:33 +0100 (BST) > Simon Wilcox <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > However you look at it, no amount of documentation makes up for > > practical experience of the system you are supporting. If you change > > sys admins every 6-12 months you end up with a layered environment, > > each layer developed to a sysadmins personal taste with probably all > > sorts of little incompatibilities. > > Then set up a WikiWiki for your documentation. It's quick and easy > enough that it actually gets used.
Good idea, I shall give it a go. Anyone have any practical experience of making this work ? > > Note - this is in a small company scenario where there is rarely any > > kind of handover period from one person to the next, unlike a larger > > company where you might change 1 of 4 or more and have the benefit > > of collective experience. > > This "collective experience" should be minimised; staff should use the > rule that no knowledge only in their head(s) should be critical to the > operation, maintenance or further development of your systems. I agree 110%, except practical experience again suggests that this almost never getes externalised when you have a team smaller than 3. It is also extremely difficult, in any size of team, to externalise the implicit troubleshooting experience of your team. This is why most Knowledge Management projects have failed. But we still carry on trying :-) > As my father said to me, "the biggest problem with the computer > industry is all of the gurus" Amen to that :-) Simon.
