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Prior to read this post, have a read of https://infotechmentor.com/2024/08/20/documentation-examples/. I provide some examples on how to create documentation and notes on issues, procedures, processes etc

This post is to review your documentation skills as well as provide some examples on how you can document your work

• What is it that I’m documenting
  • Knowledge base articles?
    • Procedure
    • Process
    • Escalation
    • How to do?
    • Who to avoid (of course keep this private)
    • Who knows what
    • There are many type’s of documentation. Don’t feel your documentation needs to be reminders or notes
      • Make sure it’s for your knowledge and skills building
    • What it eh purpose for this documentation
      • To improve, grow and hopefully lead to other IT career opportunities
• Who is this for?
  • My biggest advice (and I don’t usually give it) is to document for yourself
  • No one will document it for you
    • Other’s are lazy that’s how it is
  • Building your knowledge and skill bank
  • If others want to learn then you can share it with them
    • Make sure you see the original documentation. Don’t let others take it from you
• Where will I store this
  • Make sure you have a structure on how you want to store this
  • I do the following when making a structure
    • <subject> | <service/item/system> | <summary>
    • E.g.
      • AWS | dynamo table | delete dodgy entry in the table
      • AWS | ecs | restart ecs cluster
      • Escalation of P1 issue | Windows server in Datacentre outage | Engagement of incident management team
  • I use Jira to document my knowledge base articles
    • I use a cloud version of Jira, so my articles are stored virtually
    • I also use the export feature which I can get a pdf version of the documentation

Examples

• Below is a dot point example on how to delete a table in AWS dynamo database
• E.g.
  • Log into the AWS console
  • In the search box, search for dynamo
    • You should see a single result, AWS dynamo database
    • Click this option
  • Search for your table name
    • The table should show. If not double check the table name
  • Select the table
  • Select show ‘table content’
  • You will see results / entries of your table
  • On the left click the multi box (you can select more, if needed)
  • Navigate to the top right hand corner
  • Click the drop down
    • You should see delete
  • Press the delete button
  • The result/entry you selected should delete
  • Note – this is a rough idea on the AWS dynamo service
• Below is an example on how to restart an ecs cluster
• E.g.
  • Log into the AWS console
  • In the search type ‘ecs’, click on ‘elastic container service’
    • You will see a list of ecs clusters
  • Click on ‘cluster-abc’
    • This will bring you inside the cluster with a list of services
  • Navigate to the top right hand corner of screen
  • You should see options, click options
    • You should see ‘restart all’ option
  • Select this and all services will restart
  • Monitor and make sure all services return a running service and is green
• Below is an example of how to escalate a priority 1 incident with the incident management (i.m.) team
• E.g.
  • Receive inbound call from global ops team
    • Confirm if ticket is raised and quick overview of issue
  • Replicate issue confirmed by global ops team
    • Issue?
      • No > close ticket. Confirm what the output / screen is showing which triggered an escalation with the global ops team
      • Yes > engage dev / l2 teams
        • Send inbound messages to devs / l2 teams
          • Inform these teams that comms bridge is to be stood up
        • Collect data, logs, alerting, monitoring charts etc
        • Stand up comms bridge and send to devs / l2 teams
          • Once everyone is present discuss solutions
    • Is issue now resolved?
      • No > determine next steps
        • Do Snr stakeholders need to be informed of next action
      • Yes > add closure notes, resolution notes, improvements and retro notes
    • Post incident discussion
      • Arrange 2-3 days from incident quick summary review of all involved users in the incident

The 3 examples above are how you can document procedures. The dot points all flow and create a story on how to action your procedure.

Summary:

• Documentation is the most undervalued process in building IT skills
• We get complacent during the course of our career and get used to routines
  • Once these routines are broken then the fire fighting starts
    • E.g. Who knows this, this person has left, nothing has been written down etc
• Consider the documentation management side; the how and where