IT Pros - Document(ation) Management?

[The Hoff]

Just wondered what systems people have in place for managing and creating documentation of systems, servers, installs, change tracking etc.

I'm sick to death of the companies 'system' of half documenting processes in .doc files and dumping them on a drive to be forgotten.

I was thinking long the lines of a Wiki perhaps (like DocWiki), but haven't setup anything similar before, so unsure how useful it will be (it's it's not easy, the techtards will just claim ignorance) in the long run.

Interested to hear peoples experiences of this stuff, and how it's effectively managed (google is a minefield of random results for DMS).

Cheers.

 

[JackoR26]

I would also like some ideas as we currently use the .doc system and it sucks!

 

[DMS]

We use a combination of Microsoft Dynamics CRM and SharePoint.
Both use the same SQL back end, so with a lot of customisation of both products they've turned it into an excellent system for logging support incidents, managing the change process for different customers, storing customer documentation, auditing staff performance, etc... etc...

Of course, business processes come into it too. We have a proper process in place for managing Change Requests on behalf of our customers. The process always involves several people from different areas of the business, as well as involvement from the customer themselves.

Definitely worth looking into if your company can devote the time and resources, or has the expertise in house to do such a thing.

 

[sn00p]

Bloody hell, you document stuff!

 

[Longy]

We use a CRM package - but i keep a .doc system for my own records.

 

[dk]

isn't a crm package the wrong thing for document management and change process?

thought it was a 'customer' relationship manager? We use it for the accounting end of our customer transactions etc.

We don't currenty use anything, we do the .doc sometimes but putting something in place is too much like hard work, toomuch red tape then, isn't this what they teach you on those stupid ITIL courses?

 

[Longy]

Depends on your CRM and job - all our faults and jobs are logged on to the system when the customer calls or a quote is processed, it then goes through the system with a jobsheet etc, we also sign on and off the job which logs time with PDA's. All changes are noted then it goes through to invoicing. Plus we use the .doc for everything else.

 

[dk]

Depends on your CRM and job - all our faults and jobs are logged on to the system when the customer calls or a quote is processed, it then goes through the system with a jobsheet etc, we also sign on and off the job which logs time with PDA's. All changes are noted then it goes through to invoicing. Plus we use the .doc for everything else.

no, i agree, but thats not what the hoff is asking for, he wants something to document manage servers, systems and installs, so IT department type documentation

 

[Daz]

I use my memory most of the time.
We do have a database, but I rarely use it.. keep it stored in memory, and it's always with you then.
I have around 120 networks up there..

Passwords, IP addresses, topology, asset register.. everything.

 

[Longy]

no, i agree, but thats not what the hoff is asking for, he wants something to document manage servers, systems and installs, so IT department type documentation

Most of that info can be logged on the CRM though per customer basis through records. If i look up one customer I can see all the information about that customer - including network information, equipment that is installed and total history of work carried out.

 

[The Hoff]

no, i agree, but thats not what the hoff is asking for, he wants something to document manage servers, systems and installs, so IT department type documentation

Correct, I want to know if someone changes a setting on a server. Or if someone applies a new GPO which kills everyones profiles. Or if a server was rebooted. Plus details on software installs, settings etc.

I use my memory most of the time.
We do have a database, but I rarely use it.. keep it stored in memory, and it's always with you then.
I have around 120 networks up there..

Passwords, IP addresses, topology, asset register.. everything.

Yeah that's a great suggestion, unfortunately it's also completely useless as I'm sure you appreciate. I want things documented so that when someone is on sick/holiday/leave it's there in front of me.

There must be some decent systems out there, DocWiki looks good but as above I'm not sure how much hassle is it to put up and manage.

 

[MickM]

http://sydiproject.com/

 

[Homer-Simpson]

You could always try something like http://tortoisesvn.net/

 

[Daz]

Tortoise is simply a GUI interface to the SVN command? Heh.
I guess you mean having files (probably plain text) in an SVN repository which can be checked out, checked in, etc?

The main thing is to get people to keep things up to date - it has to be as EASY and as quick as possible.. otherwise no one will do it, and it'll be useless.. (probably worse than useless as you think it's uptodate but it isn't).

I don't know of any system which is *perfect* to be honest..

A Wiki is pretty easy to use.. and it's kinda cool too for this sort of stuff, so may get used well?
Depends how controlled you need it I guess, and how "official"..

If it's just for internal use, it's not so bad, but if it needs to be audited for change requests etc, then I'm not comfortable at suggesting any one package. (as I've never really used one at length)

 

[Homer-Simpson]

Tortoise is simply a GUI interface to the SVN command? Heh.
I guess you mean having files (probably plain text) in an SVN repository which can be checked out, checked in, etc?

The main thing is to get people to keep things up to date - it has to be as EASY and as quick as possible.. otherwise no one will do it, and it'll be useless.. (probably worse than useless as you think it's uptodate but it isn't).

I don't know of any system which is *perfect* to be honest..

A Wiki is pretty easy to use.. and it's kinda cool too for this sort of stuff, so may get used well?
Depends how controlled you need it I guess, and how "official"..

If it's just for internal use, it's not so bad, but if it needs to be audited for change requests etc, then I'm not comfortable at suggesting any one package. (as I've never really used one at length)

I had multiple windows open, I posted the wrong link

We did use http://subversion.tigris.org/ with the TortoiseSVN client. I think we are now slowly moving to SharePoint. Daz hits the nail on the head though. It is getting the people to document everything that you will have issues with, you could have the best system in the world but if people don't want to do it/cannot be bothered doing it then it will just not work.

 

[H182]

We have hardly anything documented lol.

 

[Cookie]

http://www.interwoven.com/

Pretty much every law firm in the City uses one of the Interwoven products for their DMS

 

[DanCup]

DDM - Domino Document Manager

 

[dirtydog]

Sharepoint for us

 

[dk]

yep, thinking about it sharepoint seems the obvious answer.

 

[DMS]

I do believe I mentioned SharePoint at the beginning of the thread