> "Can it stay current without disproportionate effort?" ^maintainability ## Resolution > The property of a knowledge artefact staying current without disproportionate effort relative to its value. ^definition Knowledge decays - tools change, conventions evolve, facts get superseded. Maintainability determines whether an artefact survives the decay or rots in place. It depends on the cost per update (which should scale with what changed, not with the size of the store), the availability of someone willing to make the update, and whether the artefact's structure makes drift visible. The Reusable property in the [[FAIR principles]] extends maintainability. ## In practice > A library version is bumped. The architecture overview that referenced the old version updates because the version was a property reference, not a hardcoded string. One commit changes the underlying field; every artefact that referenced it picks up the new value automatically. ## Discovery questions Customer-facing prompts that surface this attribute being missing, grouped by the pain each probes. ### From [[Notes I no longer trust]] (P) ![[Notes I no longer trust#^discovery-questions]] ### From [[Documentation goes stale]] (C) ![[Documentation goes stale#^discovery-questions]] ### From [[KM does not scale]] (C) ![[KM does not scale#^discovery-questions]] ### From [[Artefacts without owner]] (C) ![[Artefacts without owner#^discovery-questions]] ### From [[My notes are buried in clutter]] (P) ![[My notes are buried in clutter#^discovery-questions]] ### From [[Knowledge anxiety]] (P) ![[Knowledge anxiety#^discovery-questions]] ### From [[My system has become the work]] (P) ![[My system has become the work#^discovery-questions]] ### From [[Productivity frameworks do not fit my work]] (P) ![[Productivity frameworks do not fit my work#^discovery-questions]] ### From [[Knowledge upkeep is nobody's job]] (C) ![[Knowledge upkeep is nobody's job#^discovery-questions]] ### From [[Documentation buried in clutter]] (C) ![[Documentation buried in clutter#^discovery-questions]] ### From [[Reorg lost institutional memory]] (C) ![[Reorg lost institutional memory#^discovery-questions]] ### From [[Nobody uses the KM system we built]] (C) ![[Nobody uses the KM system we built#^discovery-questions]] ### From [[Status reports do not match reality]] (C) ![[Status reports do not match reality#^discovery-questions]] ### From [[Adopted methodology nobody actually follows]] (C) ![[Adopted methodology nobody actually follows#^discovery-questions]]