When an Employee with Critical Project Knowledge Quits and Leaves You Hanging...

Before I became an independent SharePoint | M365 consultant 18+ years ago I ran a successful Microsoft consulting firm.?We had about 30 consultants and contractors and focused on developing custom Microsoft solutions. (Back in those days it was all Visual Basic). ?

A very challenging situation that we sometimes faced was when one of our employees who held all the details of a major project abruptly quit or was let go – leaving us and the client in panic mode.

Of course the goal is always to fully document the architecture, design, and inner workings of any solution, but in the real world that often does not happen. Everyone is usually running in circles and so many changes take place that is the rare organization that truly takes the time to document a project in a comprehensive and structured manner.

To address this challenge we came up with a rather unusual solution.?(I say unusual because I’ve never heard of anyone else doing it, although I’d be fascinated to hear if you did and what your experience was!). ?

What did we do?

At the completion of each major milestone we gathered the team in the conference room and taped them explaining the project and diagramming on the whiteboard. We asked them to walk through the work that had been done in the current phase, and explain what had been accomplished, how it had been done, any issues that they ran into, etc. ?The objective of this exercise was not to create a video that was going to be viewed by anyone externally. This was purely for internal use, so there was no pressure on the team. They were guided to provide as much detail as possible- the more detail the better- no matter how trivial. It was a full data dump.

I should note that this process was sometimes difficult for introverted developers, so as part of employee onboarding process we had them watch examples that had been done by our CTO who was an extraordinary speaker.?We also gave them sufficient time to prepare outlines so that they did not come in blind. ?Adding personal insights was encouraged re: the client, architecture decisions, major players, politics, tools used, client culture, etc.?

They were compensated for their time, of course. Donuts and pizza were always provided.

And the investment was inexpensive. We’re talking about prep time and hourly time and some food. This process produced a comprehensive reference of the project and how it was built, which was invaluable to new employees joining the project and as reference material for similar engagements.?

A few years after we started the tapings, we began sending the tapes to transcribers to have them converted into written materials. In some cases we would have them edited and supplied to the client as a run book of sorts. (We made it very clear to the client where this information came from and that it was a freeform discussion and was not meant to replace formal documentation). Clients were excited by the idea and saw it as an insurance policy.?

In today’s world this concept can be easily enhanced to take advantage of advances in digital recordings, capture technologies, streaming solutions, and much more. Imagine a knowledgebase of projects, the components and challenges, and the solutions. What a tremendously valuable asset for the organization.

I’d love to hear your thoughts.