Refining the documentation repository for a premium food manufacturer

Our team has collaborated with the client to consolidate all data within a centralized architecture repository and ensure its ongoing monitoring and change management. 

Our approach to the task consisted of the following steps:

• Documenting  baseline business architecture and drawing a network diagram to figure out the high-, medium-, and low-priority segments of documentation
• Documenting workflows for high-priority customer data, such as inventory metrics, financial operations, and data for auditors
• Collaborating with the client’s technology team and training them for the updated process of documenting essential data, defining stakeholders for each data stream, and implementing change management
• Creating the document structure and hierarchy for a repository
• Examining the updated documentation, ensuring its ongoing support and monitoring, and appointing a person responsible for its approval

Auditing existing IT infrastructure

Throughout the discovery phase, our data engineers performed a thorough assessment of existing IT infrastructure, which allowed us to:

• identify areas of potential improvement: knowledge gaps, outdated documents and processes, technology issues
• analyze ways in which current IT infrastructure can impact business efficiency, scalability, and meeting compliance requirements
• outline the roadmap to establishing a centralized repository and collecting all valuable documentation within it

Appointing stakeholders for documentation management

Once our technology team performed the audit and identified areas for improvement, our business analysts gave recommendations for appointing stakeholders on the client’s side for each document and data stream. We also updated permissions for sensitive company data based on an individual’s level and scope of responsibilities within the organization. Taking these steps allowed us to:

• decrease the chances of important documents being lost or altered
• lower the risk of sensitive information leaks by introducing permission management
• improve documentation quality by having each asset reviewed by an expert and generating only valuable documents for the knowledge base
• streamline support and the onboarding flow by having all processes documented, stored in a ready-to-use repository, and available on demand
• use the benefits of role-based access control (RBAC) to create varying reports for users accessing the repository based on their organizational level and scope of responsibilities

Establishing a solution framework within the baseline data architecture

In parallel with advising on appointing stakeholders, we examined the client’s current data architecture and added it to a solution framework, also known as a solution continuum. It will facilitate our client’s transformation in the data architecture area. Here’s how we approached this:

• Documented all services our client used into a service catalog, which helped identify critical and non-critical segments of the baseline data architecture and outline the scope of work
• Defined stakeholders and end users for each documentation stream in the system
• Provided our client with a list of solutions to help them transition to a centralized repository

Having an established solution continuum will help our client’s data team manage documentation smoothly and have defined processes for each data stream.

Documenting the updated architecture and managing permissions

Once we streamlined data workflows and documentation, we described the updated processes and provided the client with enhanced permission management, focusing on:

• sources of data
• a detailed description of the data retrieval process
• who has permissions to see, change, and manage data

By implementing and updating permission management, we aligned the client’s business architecture with the intention to follow the Integrated Information Infrastructure Reference Model (III-RM). This improved operational visibility on every level and allowed our client to align their IT landscape with business objectives.

Exchanging knowledge and initiating personnel training

At this stage, our team conducted knowledge exchange sessions with knowledge holders on the client’s side: the CEO, CTO, BA, and team leads. Obtained knowledge was documented and integrated into the repository, which allowed us to create a comprehensive library of best practices, workflows, and internal processes and close remaining knowledge gaps.

Along with that, we established an onboarding workflow for current and new employees to encourage them to share new information.

Providing ongoing support and documentation management

We established and documented a change management workflow that applies to any process structure or business logic updates. Any changes in code are recorded in the Git repository. This allows us to control system versioning or roll back code if low-quality data has been entered on the client’s side.

Along with that, we defined stakeholders — team leads, business analysts, and CTOs — who support the current formula for each process. If they decide to change the logic behind a process, we get notified and assign the data management team a task to update documentation.