A Deep Dive Into IT Documentation Naming Conventions

Imagine each employee using their own naming convention for the documentation that they create. It will defeat the very purpose of documentation, leading to duplication, information squirreling and more time wasted locating information.   

For documentation to work its magic, you need to keep the naming conventions consistent. This should start as soon as you deploy a documentation software. Don’t put your team in a situation where they have to go through each document and then rename it. Sticking to a naming convention will make it easier for your team to deduce a document’s contents by merely looking at the file name.  

Proven Naming Convention Tips    

Based on our interactions with our partners, we have put together a list of proven IT documentation naming convention practices that you can implement straight away. These are primarily focused on key differences and similarities found in your daily operations/projects.  

• Establish a standard date format like YYMMDD or YYYYMMDD 

• Keep the names short and crisp  

• Refrain from using non-alphabetic and non-numerical characters such as &, @, etc.  

• Use underscores, dashes, words with no separation or camel case instead of spaces  

• Ensure that each name is unique for the same scope