Necessary

When we introduce interns to the wonderful world of documentation, they tend to respond with a ‘Is that really necessary?’ and a deep sigh. And we sympathize with them, because documentation tends to be not a whole lot of fun, especially when you just want to type code. It gets me thinking though. What is ‘necessary’?

Is it required?

As in, you’re bad for not doing it? I’m not a fan of required at all, because if you can’t agree without resorting to ‘discipline’ and ‘authority’ and more of that military stuff, then there really isn’t agreement and the job gets done slavishly. This makes for bad business, especially when we’re talking about programmers, because programmers are paid to think. Do you want the people whom you pay to think to, you know, just do what they’re told and not think?

I didn’t think so.

So agreed is double plus good and required is double plus bad.

Is it required by law?

Praise the lord that software engineering, at least at our level, is relatively free of meddling. Necessary, for us lucky few, does not mean required by law.

For my employers there are plenty things necessary-as-in-go- to-jail-without-passing-start. They abstract those away for my co-workers and me so we can solve the client related problems.

Does it mean you can’t do without it?

I think ‘it is necessary to breathe and drink and eat’ fall into this category. So there is some truth in that necessary has something to do with not being able to do without.

But eh, can’t we do without documentation? Or websites for that matter? Software entirely?

No, I don’t think any of what we software engineers are doing is necessary-as-in-breathing. That said, I would like to mention that computers and clever software have solved a host of significant issues that have founded breakthroughs in fields such as medicine and chemistry...

What I think

I think it means: is it economically sound.

Tada, the end, thank you.

Ok I’ll explain a bit more. You see, I work for a software company. The software part in ‘software company’ refers to what we do, whereas the company part refers to the why we do it. We’re in this to make money. Making money is our goal. And relative to this goal of making money, doing the right things is necessary. If documenting our work leads to mo’ money, then we document.

This is also why I sympathize with the interns; since they’re not really in this for the goal (money), they tend to not identify well with the means (documentation). They’re gone after a couple of weeks and usually don’t come back for second rounds. When we get that rare jewel of a guy (or girl) who either loves software engineering (which is more than programming, but that’s another story), or understands microeconomics, it’s necessary for us to keep him (or her).

ps. Clever people will have noticed that breathing isn’t really necessary either, except if you want to live. Relative to the goal of living, breathing is necessary.

Concluding

I think that what is necessary will become clear for everyone in time. I’m not worried about the interns who don’t enjoy the process of documentation; they will either run into enough situations where documentation would have saved them a lot of time and effort, or they won’t. If they don’t, maybe the documentation wasn’t really worth it. Good for them. If they do, they can choose to figure it out or just plow ahead. If they plow ahead, then they’re not worth my time and effort. Good for me. If they go for figuring it out, then we can talk about what is necessary for things to go better next time.