Second this! I just got hired for a short-term project to extend a payment solution I once wrote when I was employed by that company.
I was amazed to find that a) nobody maintained the project after I left, there were only two minor fixes because their house was on fire, and b) I really took the time to write almost complete documentation on all the important topics, which helped me get back on track faster.
You are absolutely right, and I have experienced this most of the time. The problem is that it is an uphill battle to explain to most stakeholders why you are "wasting" so much time on non-customer facing documentation.
It is hard enough to convince even technical stakeholders (e.g. product owners) to write automated tests.
While at the time I mostly think it's bad, later on it forces them to pay me twice as much, so I guess it's not as bad as I always think in those moments :D
It's worse for corporate private source projects. Often the docs are lacking and it's essentially a 0-man project.
Second this! I just got hired for a short-term project to extend a payment solution I once wrote when I was employed by that company.
I was amazed to find that a) nobody maintained the project after I left, there were only two minor fixes because their house was on fire, and b) I really took the time to write almost complete documentation on all the important topics, which helped me get back on track faster.
You are absolutely right, and I have experienced this most of the time. The problem is that it is an uphill battle to explain to most stakeholders why you are "wasting" so much time on non-customer facing documentation.
It is hard enough to convince even technical stakeholders (e.g. product owners) to write automated tests.
While at the time I mostly think it's bad, later on it forces them to pay me twice as much, so I guess it's not as bad as I always think in those moments :D
0 man + one accounts dept