UIT technical writer hosts Documentation Town Hall

You know that person on your team you always turn to with questions ... the one who’s been your go-to since your first day on the job, who handles loads of independent tasks and yet never hesitates to help you out?

Now, imagine they just put in their two weeks’ notice.

If the thought of losing a knowledgeable colleague puts a pit in your stomach, your team’s internal documentation could probably use some work.

Patrick Harris, a technical writer for UIT’s Strategic Communication group, could be your go-to colleague for improving your documentation strategy. Then, should the above scenario arise, you can spend those last precious weeks reminiscing, not picking the brain of your departing colleague or risking the loss of decades of experience you’ve come to count on.

“Internal documentation is a good form of risk mitigation,” Harris said during a virtual town hall meeting on July 18 concerning internal documentation services for UIT teams. “When people can quickly get up to speed, it’s less likely services will go down ... and more likely the organization can recover quickly if they do. … And if you’re the only person who knows how to do what you do and it’s not documented, it might be very difficult to take a vacation.”

Anyone who was unable to attend may access a recording of the event in the UIT Employees Teams channel.

In addition to being UIT’s resident documentation specialist, Harris is co-chair of the ITS-UIT Documentation Community of Practice (CoP), which meets for 30 minutes online every two weeks to discuss strategies, methodologies, best practices, policies, and procedures related to IT documentation.

“I don’t know if one solution will work for every single team, but the more I can get a feel for what a team uses documentation for, and how they like to access it, we can decide if we need a unified platform, and if not, at least have consistent themes so even if folks are using different tools, we can … keep things clear and concise, well-indexed and well-marked, for an easier user experience,” Harris said.

Harris’ talk, which was attended by about 150 UIT employees, included an overview of the services he provides to all UIT teams upon request; reasons that accurate, accessible, and regularly updated documentation are important to a maturing IT organization; examples of his work for UIT teams; and a brief overview of and invitation to join the ITS-UIT Documentation CoP.

The town hall event also featured two guest speakers whose teams achieved their documentation goals with Harris’ guidance and support.

Syndi Haywood, associate director for UIT Voice Systems and Business Administration, worked with Harris on onboarding and training material for service coordinators, documentation that’s hosted in the U’s instance of ServiceNow.

“One thing that everybody knows, you can have documentation, but if you don’t keep it updated and the documentation gets stale, it’s useless …” Haywood said. “Onboarding new service coordinators is really hard when nothing is up to date.”

Rose Villegas, a data analyst for UIT Network Services, worked with Harris on a series of disaster recovery workbooks stored in UBox for areas including data centers, wireless connectivity, database interface, and firewalls. Villegas said Harris’ “support was essential” in making documentation readily accessible and avoiding unnecessary jargon or complex language. 

“Patrick had a very proactive approach. He asked questions when something was unclear. Considering he was working with network engineers, I think he was wonderful when something needed to be repeated or explained more,” she said.

Harris fielded several questions from attendees, including inquiries about the use of artificial intelligence in documentation. He cautioned against using any AI platform not approved for university use. Microsoft Copilot is currently available at no cost to University of Utah and University of Utah Health staff and faculty as part of the university’s A5-tier Microsoft Campus Agreement. Donna Roach and Steve Hess, U of U Health and U of U chief information officers, respectively, co-wrote some general guidelines on AI use from an IT leadership perspective as well.

Looking to the future of UIT internal documentation, Harris said he is developing a broadly defined documentation template and a style guide to make the documentation writer’s experience more consistent.

If you’d like to join the ITS-UIT Documentation CoP or if you’re a UIT employee interested in speaking with Harris about your team’s internal documentation needs, email patrick.harris@utah.edu or message him via Teams. Please direct general or external communications inquiries to UIT Strategic Communication at stratcomm@it.utah.edu.

 

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