Explore It!

Recording Your Findings

Given that you find yourself having to characterize a legacy system because the documentation was inadequate, you’ll do your future self and others a favor if you capture what you learn for posterity. You could do this in a formal way, but a lighter-weight approach can serve just as well. Here are some tips for capturing your observations with minimal additional effort.

While debriefing others about your findings, sketch key models (such as a map of the ecosystem or a state model) on a whiteboard. When you’re done, take a picture of the sketch and post it to a shared space, such as the team’s wiki. Write a few words of explanation to go along with the picture. It will take you half an hour or less to publish key insights ...