Being an actuary demands a high degree of professionalism. Documentation is one of the main components of being professional. Importance of Documentation has never been understated in professional studies, however many a times proper documentation is not done because of certain reasons. I would like to restate some of the advantages of proper documentation here.
· Actuarial work often involves various assumptions and not documenting each of them will disable the third party to appreciate any model.
· Complex equations / mathematics involved in any project will require proper documentation to understand.
· Without proper documentation even the person who created the model will find it hard to understand what he/she did. (Trust me on this ... this happens no matter how bright you are).
· Projects generally involve lot of third parties, documenting everything properly will help them understand and appreciate the model in better manner.
· Documentation also prevents too much subjectivity.
· Documentation helps to prevent conflict with third parties as project goes on.
· Documentation also helps to keep track of your individual performance.
Please feel free to add any of the points which I missed here. I believe all these reasons make documentation of each and every project absolutely necessary for an actuary.
