Why documentation is over-rated

The Agile Manifesto says “we value working software over comprehensive documentation”.

People often over-rate the value of documentation. Why? There are five common assumptions:

1. People will look for the documentation
2. People will find and read the documentation
3. The documentation is up-to-date
4. People will understand the documentation
5. People will act on and not dismiss it

Documentation can be very valuable, but not as often as you might think.