Design Automation

Picture the usual IT organisation. There are hundreds of systems connected together using mystical means that are unfathomable to the uninitiated. The sheer complexity can be overwhelming. One way of coping is to write things down. Design documentation attempts to explain the hidden mysteries of the IT department: how things are connected together, and, more importantly, why. Yet change is the only constant, and the configurations of the systems are in flux. New applications are being deployed, more storage is being added, old systems are being turned off. How do you maintain the documentation to reflect what is actually going on?

The Documentation Dilemma

In this situation, you are faced with a dilemma: Is writing all of this documentation worth the hassle and expense? The way you currently answer this question likely falls somewhere between the following extremes:

1. You rigorously maintain all documentation, always.
2. You don't do any documentation at all.

If you're like most people, you aim for number 1, but end up somewhere in the middle of the two. DocGen can make this much easier.

Barriers to Good Documentation

Most people don't enjoy writing documentation about IT systems. Most IT people are technologists who like to play with technology. Writing documentation isn't as much fun. If you add to this the usual processes and tools used for creating documentation, it's not fun, and it's tedious, frustrating, and seemingly pointless. And there's more of it tomorrow.

Humans aren't very good at doing repetitive tasks. Here we are, surrounded by computers that can perform the same tasks over and over again, millions or trillions of time without error, and we aren't using them. Why not?

DocGen helps to remove the repetitive and boring parts of creating documentation. If we assume that a design needs to be created, why not create it once, in one place, and let a computer take care of the details of generating the documentation? That's what DocGen does.

Make it Useful

DocGen creates the documentation for your system design as well as the commands required to implement it. It's so much easier to create the full set of commands with DocGen than it is to do it manually, that using DocGen becomes the most useful way to do designs. The real point of using DocGen then becomes getting the implementation commands done, and the documentation gets done for free. This helps to ensure that your documentation always matches the design that is implemented.

Integration and Automation

DocGen can help you to integrate your IT infrastructure, and to automate your processes. The following diagram illustrates how DocGen fits into your IT organisation.