Drawing diagrams with excess creativity

This section explores what happens when you try to communicate technical information with too much creativity rather than relying on established practice within your community. We do this by looking at the non-standard documentation anti-pattern.

Non-standard documentation

Non-standard documentation refers to an anti-pattern, where teams produce technical documentation in an idiosyncratic format rather than relying on standard practice.

Example

SafeCo, the leading provider of security solutions for facility management, is in the visioning phase of a new Salesforce implementation. It is trying to come up with a strategy for completely transforming its business using technology and has bought into Salesforce as part of the solution.

Qin, a strategy manager with SafeCo, is leading the visioning exercise and is supported by an external consultancy with particular strength in design thinking. They run a series of highly engaging workshops...