Introducing documentation

Documentation is one of those practices in software development that can be a pain while you’re doing it, but its benefits will improve the quality, maintainability, and longevity of your software.

Benefits of documentation

Let’s review why documentation is not just beneficial but essential, as shown in the following list:

• Improved code understandability: Well-documented code is far easier to understand. Poorly documented code can actually be worse than no documentation! When you’re writing complex algorithms and under pressure from managers to deliver fast, it’s easy to forget that what is obvious to you now will not be to someone else—or your future self. Documentation can be a guide, or used as a reminder, explaining why the code was written that way, and how it fits into the wider project. This is particularly crucial for complex code bases where the purpose of a block of code might not be immediately...