Ask Slashdot: Documenting Scattered Sites and Systems? 114
First time accepted submitter capriguy84 writes "Six months ago I joined a small firm(~30) where I am pretty much the IT systems guy. I was immediately asked to work on couple of projects without much going through the documentation on what currently exists. So I created new wiki topics everywhere and whenever needed. I am now in a situation where information is scattered across multiple pages and there is lot of overlapping. So I have decided to start a project of re-organizing the wiki so that it makes sense to me and easily accessible for others. I am dealing with 2 disjoint sites, 4 data centers, managing all flavors of Unix, windows, networking, storage, VMware etc. Along with that I have HOWTO guides, cheatsheets, contracts, licensing, projects, proposals and other things that typically exist in a enterprise. Any tips with how to approach? Dos & Don'ts? Recommended reading?"
consider the use cases (Score:5, Informative)
Consider who will be using the information, why, and when.
Determine the most common use cases for the information you have collected. Then organize the information to suit.
Server died. What do I do?
Add a user: What do I do?
etc. Think about where you will be in a year, and how this information will be used when you have forgotten most of it, or in panic firefight mode, or gone on to another job.