Technical documentation is often overlooked in due diligence, but it reveals crucial insights about engineering culture, operational maturity, and key person risk.
Documentation Categories
1. Architecture Documentation
- System context diagrams
- Component architecture
- Data flow diagrams
- Integration maps
2. Operational Documentation
- Runbooks and playbooks
- Incident response procedures
- Deployment guides
- Monitoring and alerting documentation
3. Development Documentation
- Code documentation and comments
- API documentation
- Development standards
- Onboarding guides
What Documentation Quality Indicates
Good Documentation
- Mature engineering practices
- Knowledge sharing culture
- Lower key person risk
- Faster onboarding
Poor Documentation
- Tribal knowledge concentration
- Higher key person risk
- Slower incident resolution
- Challenging integration
Key Takeaway: Documentation gaps are common but fixable. Factor the cost of documentation creation into post-acquisition planning.