Documentation can be useful in more ways than one

Process documentation is rarely on the best seller list of interesting publications, although reading it late at night can be useful for curing insomnia. Boring though it can be, it's there to impart information which needs to be understood by its audience, so there's no point in making it overly complex and difficult to follow.

The best documentation is none at all, with the process guiding the agent at every step. Unfortunately not all processes can be software assisted or driven and some form of documentation will be required, but don't get stuck in the same old format. The same process can have different views, containing different detail and in different formats, all depending on the intended audience, who are also the 'customer', so it's important to find out what works best for them.

Some might prefer to see the tasks for various other agents involved in the process whilst others would prefer to see only what they need to do. Sometimes a checklist of list of actions is more appropriate and sometimes images and text work better, as not everyone can work from a flowchart.

Where flowcharts are used, it's preferable to use an international standard format, such as BPMN, which can prevent some inventive use of symbols, such as a decision point with 'Yes', 'No' and 'Maybe' (yes - it does happen and whilst that's fine if you're working in the quantum world where uncertainties are the norm, most of us are not).

All documentation is there for a purpose so take it to the gym for a workout and make sure that it's fit for its intended purpose.