Myth One: Agile Eliminates Documentation

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In my observation, the above statement from the Agile Manifesto has been misunderstood and mis-implemented more than any other. The common misunderstanding here is that documentation isn’t valuable in the Agile development framework. The resulting mis-implementation is an Agile framework that doesn’t appropriately leverage the value of documentation. 

Documentation is a valuable necessity of software development, because without documentation:

• There is an increased risk that the software will not accurately perform complex calculations or business rules 
• It is more expensive and difficult to enhance, support, or integrate with the software
• Customers do not fully understand the value that has been created 
• It is difficult to train new team members (both for the customer and the development team)
• Defects are more likely to go overlooked with software delivery alone
• Misunderstanding between the customer and the development team are more likely to go unnoticed with software delivery alone

Once we recognize documentation as a valuable necessity, regardless of development framework used, the question then becomes what type of documentation is appropriate for Agile development? 

Unlike Waterfall development, where the same documentation can be used as an input and an output of the development process, in Agile development, most documentation is an output of the development process. 

The primary purpose of documentation in the Agile framework is to explain the software that the team has already created and NOT to explain what the team will be creating.  I recommend approaching documentation with what I call a Minimum Viable Documentation (MVD) strategy. The team should challenge themselves to document only what is minimally necessary at all times to ensure maximum effort is placed on creating working software.  

Most importantly, the team should work to minimize the amount of documentation that is created before the working software has been created. Only documentation that supplies the team with essential information should be created before the working software has been developed. 

As more working software is developed, more valuable information is available to be documented for the benefit of all stakeholders. Generally, as the amount of working software requiring development on a project decreases, the amount of documentation required increases. 

Perfecting what documentation should be created when is how Agile rockstars are made. Review the images below for recommendation on what type of documentation is appropriate for each stage of the Agile development process.