On Thursday, I was brainstorming with some delightful folks from a small nonprofit organization about longterm strategies for their Mac-based FileMaker database. We were talking about the difficulties of documenting its overall structure and unique quirks, and I found myself saying, "a good manual is hard to find."
I cautioned them against the plan of having the database administrator do all the documentation singlehandedly - though not because of any weakness on his part! On the contrary, the problem is that he's far too knowledgeable and experienced.
Scrabbling about for a helpful analogy, I ended up pointing out how difficult it is to find one's way around most shopping malls. The more confusing and inadequate it is, the more convinced I am that the signage was designed by the architect herself. After all, she already knows where everything is! It's nearly impossible for someone who carries the whole plan around in her head to counter the disorientation of a newcomer who doesn't see or share in the logic of the big picture.
My best recommendation for this small nonprofit was to have the database administrator give an introductory training to a new employee, encouraging the newcomer to ask a lot of questions, and taping the resulting exchange. A user's manual for this highly-customized database should be constructed from what the nervous novice needs to know and the order in which he needs to know it.
The title of this article is a take-off on a short story by Flannery O'Connor, "A good man is hard to find."
