Any initiative comes with paperwork.

However, project
documentation’s importance is greater than that of your run-of-
the-mill paperwork.
Properly documenting projects comes with numerous benefits.
In this article, we’re going to show you the most important
project management documents, as well as teach you how
to document properly.
Let’s take a look!
 
What Is Project Documentation, and
Why Does It Matter?
According to various definitions, project documentation is “a set
of officially written, maintained or recorded material with
information or evidence pertinent to your project.”
The main purpose of project management documents is
to provide materials that you can reference, and with which
you can prove that something was or was not done.
For example, when you’ve finished a project, you can reference
documentation to double-check that the end product meets the
quality standards and expectations set at the beginning.
Without relevant project documents, you would have no way
of confirming that your project has met the client’s
expectations.
They could easily say that they’re not happy, and you’d have no
way of proving that you’ve done everything you agreed on.
Similarly, with project documentation, you can gauge some
valuable lessons about your performance.
Then, you can apply them to future projects, improving your
success rate.
Finally, documenting your project is one of the key
responsibilities of your role as a project manager.

 
Other benefits of project documentation include:
 Define the benefits and costs of the project, and allocate
resources with higher accuracy
 Use a variety of methodologies, depending on the
project’s specific requirements
 Break down (sometimes overwhelming) project work into
manageable tasks that are easier to track
 Evaluate performance and progress, and make sure you
complete the project in time
 Check if the requirements have been met, and plan on
meeting them. Without project documentation, there is no
way of confidently knowing what has to be done, and
what’s left to do
  Reference change and risk documentation in case of
disputes, scope creep, or other issues, to make resolution
plans
 Accurately communicate with all project stakeholders,
including clients, top management, and project team
members
 Assign task responsibilities and prioritize tasks with more
accuracy than without proper project documentation
 Identify issues and/or risks before they’ve affected your
project.
All these benefits are barely grazing the tip of the project
documentation iceberg.
In general, project documents can help you understand, plan,
and manage your projects better.