Where does the data go when you lose a key employee?

I was talking with a friend who is, now, the only programmer supporting a key system for the DMV for the entire state of Idaho. He had someone else working with him on the mainframe system up until about a month ago. This other gentlemen had been working on the system for better than 20 years but suddenly lost his life and left the office with all his knowledge.

Fortunately his was very good at documentation. He documented everything that he did. He worked hard to make sure there was a record.

The problem is that he has a very unique filing system. 120 folders each with sub-folders documenting a different part of the system. Each file labeled based on his way of doing things with no standardization. Not to mention that his filing system evolved over the years... as all of our systems do.

Now, other departments ask my friend to support the things that the other gentleman supported and the only thing he can say is... "I'll see if I can find the documentation."

You may have a lifer in your organization that understands the ins and outs of your system. You may be convinced that this person won't be going anywhere.

If you think you are immune to the example above, you are woefully wrong.

What is your insurance against losing someone with all the knowledge on how your business runs? What is your insurance if the key sales person, accountant, IT manager or office manager leaves? Do you have documentation for their jobs? More importantly, is that documentation in a format that you can get to and understand readily.

If you don't have a strategy... you better get one.