How easy is it for you to search your codebase, especially across projects, and find out if there are dependencies, similar code solutions, or even other incidents of similar problems? Do you feel comfortable that you can find out what you need to know across and throughout your organization?

Or is it cumbersome for you and others?

In the 2019 State of DevOps report, one of the important areas that designated high and elite performers was their likelihood to easily find internal information. Those users were more productive when using internal sources of information to find knowledge related to their work. They also know how to, and are able to use external sources as well. I certainly know that if I needed to write T-SQL everyday, having access to the SQLServerCentral forums would be invaluable for me, and I'm sure it is for many of you as well.

I think one of the very hard things for inexperienced people in any organization to do is find information. So often knowledge is gained over time by employees that have spent significant amounts of time working on systems. No matter how much we might preach and mandate documenting things, many items won't be written down. Over time, many of us internalize lots of information that might seem obvious and unimportant to us, but is necessary for more inexperienced people to succeed at different tasks. If you doubt this, just look at any DR test where someone tries to follow the directions written by experienced pros. They'll fail almost every time because we don't document every step.

I'm not sure we should even try. I think the idea of trying to help others more easily find information is a better solution. Having tools to enable this can certainly help new people get up to speed quickly, as can group programming (or administration) efforts like pairing or mob style work. We might not easily ensure someone could pick up the pieces if no staff were around, we can make it easier for those that want to learn and succeed to seek out the knowledge they need.