Maintain ​documentation as a reliable engineering asset

Metadata governance
Consistent schemas, ownership, lifecycle control

Metatagged discovery
Search that understands platform, version, and information

Lifecycle governance 
Documents move through draft, evergreen, and deprecated states

Evergreen information framework

Keep documentation as a reliable engineering asset.

Four steps

1. Diagnose repository chao
2. Design metadata architecture
3. Implement faceted discovery
4. ​Establish governance automation

Download the framework

How did we get here? 

Q: Was it always hard to find the right information at the right time? 

A: No. Before the advent of wikis in 1995, we tightly controlled information. When information was on paper.

• Information was regulated and easy to pull out any previous approved information file, whether it was a user guide, blueprints, or a BOM (bill of materials). 
  
  
• The Wiki founder's  goal, according to a 2012 WIRED interview, was to put ultimate control of their wiki pages in the hands of its users, rather than one centralized hub. <== here is your answer.
  
  
• Read the 1999 white paper, "The High Cost of Not Finding Information", published in IDC, by Analysts, Susan Feldman and Chris Sherman. <== here is the first published article describing the cost of removing the centralized hub.
  
  
• I've written and talk about why this remains a hidden problem, except I know how to get leadership to recognize and take steps to correct needless waste.
  
  #TLDR
  "While the costs of not finding information are enormous, they are hidden within the enterprise, and therefore they
  are rarely perceived as having an impact on the bottom line."