On Aug 12, 2014, at 9:00 AM, Phil Pugliese (via tml list) <xxxxxx@simplelists.com> wrote:

>
> I experienced this sort of thing quite a few times over the 30 years that I worked in IT.
>
> People wouldn't adequately document things &/or would leave & take docs w/ them.
>
> Even after all such info was supposed to be electronically recorded, it seemed that quite a lot was not.
>
> Hence, the 'Wheel' had to be re-invented, over & over.

IT, as a field in general is horrid at documentation; then again, IT seems to operate as though ‘Uhh, Houston, we have a problem’ as Normal Operating Procedure.

I would hope that engineering R&D would work more along the lines of chemistry R&D, where keeping a good, readable notebook is an expected task, particularly in scaling to production processes.

On the gripping hand, Oak Ridge may never really gotten out of it’s "Manhattan Project” 24/7 “we’re fighting an existential threat" mindset; that’s a powerful and hard-to-change institutional culture.

"Get the job done, never mind the paperwork!"

--
Bruce Johnson
University of Arizona
College of Pharmacy
Information Technology Group

Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs