Documentation is part of the product

It's tempting to treat documentation as something to add when a project is finished. In practice, the highest-value documentation often comes before the first implementation.

A good decision record captures three things:

1. The problem being solved.
2. The constraints that matter.
3. The reason one approach was chosen over another.

Small records, better decisions

A concise technical note helps future changes stay consistent with the original intent. That matters especially when projects stretch across weeks or months.

The writing doesn't have to be elaborate. A page of clear thinking can save far more time than it takes to produce.

For software projects, documentation is not just an explanation of the finished work. It's one of the tools that shapes the work itself.