Despite the near-endless list of needs that could<\/em> arise on the trail, you would be hard-pressed to find a backpacker who opts to carry everything they could possibly need. There’s a reason that minimalism beats maximalism when it comes to hiking: packing for a backpacking trip is walking a razor’s edge between bringing everything a hiker could ever need yet carrying as little as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This delicate balance between hoarding resources and efficient management bleeds into every aspect of modern life, whether it’s backpacking, home decorating, or document management. Agile document management is the pursuit of that perfect balance: everything a user may need without the deadweight that stops a project in its tracks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whether you’re heading up a mountain or a marketing campaign, identifying the right things to bring with you and the right things to leave behind is an essential discipline for all aspects of life. That’s why FileCenter’<\/a>s agile document management tools are the definitive resource for finding the way forward in the modern world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n Key Takeaways:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n To get the full picture of agile document management, you must first be familiar with its alternatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the document management world, businesspeople use many adjectives to distinguish different techniques and strategies. In previous generations, “document manager” was a job title, not a system. It used to take a full-time job (or multiple full-time jobs) to keep an organization’s documentation in order: properly sorted and filed, safely stored, securely accessible, appropriately maintained, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In today’s technology-enabled landscape, “document manager” more frequently refers to document management software<\/a> or DMS. DMS takes the most tedious and precarious parts of document management and uses technology to accomplish the same tasks in a fraction of the time. For example, document management software may procedurally sort files<\/a> based on their content, concatenate batch scans into single documents, secure documents on the cloud so you and your team can access from multiple locations and many more tasks that would range from difficult to impossible with human labor alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Traditional document management software uses the maximalist approach: all the information, all the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By contrast, agile document management<\/a> arose from the need for decision-makers to access relevant information without being weighed down by irrelevant clutter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This process of documenting all the relevant information and none of the irrelevant details is visualized below, using SDLC (Systems Development Life Cycle) as an example of a project that could require documentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For agile document management to make sense, the system must know what information is relevant and what kind of information is superfluous. To keep data management<\/a> sleek but comprehensive, there are certain types of information that you should prioritize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Agile document management is different from the traditional system in many ways, one of which is how project specifications are handled. In the traditional system, the specifications of a project would be one of the first items to be established, but in reality, the needs of a project frequently evolve and change over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because the specifications can progress over time, the agile documentation approach means project specification documents are created closer to the end of a project, once all the relevant details have been iterated on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not even the best backpackers can complete a successful hike without knowing their destination and carrying a map. While excessive documentation can slow down a project, knowing a project’s overall goal and direction is essential for making progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While agile documentation users need to hold a loose concept of the specifications of a project, the entire team must understand the overall vision and direction of a project. While this overview may change as the project progresses, it’s important that the non-negotiables be documented and accessible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Communication is essential to any high-functioning team. To avoid redundant or irrelevant work, the people on your team must be kept up-to-date with what other users are working on. Data-users should have access to the current decisions of their entire team, so relevant decisions and progress should be prioritized in agile document management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This approach to documentation isn’t limited to specific industries or departments\u2014whether you’re developing software, preparing marketing campaigns<\/a>, or restructuring a company, the disciplines of identifying essential documentation and avoiding redundant information are universally valuable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
What Is Agile Document Management?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Traditional](\"https:\/\/www.filecenter.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Image-11-1-1024x585.png\")
<\/a>How to Prioritize Information<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
1. Project Specifications<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
2. Project Overview and Vision<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
3. User Decisions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n