# Software Engineers should keep lab notebooks

DevFeed: [Software Engineers should keep lab notebooks](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/software-engineers-should-keep-lab-notebooks-21905.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://blog.nelhage.com/2010/05/software-and-lab-notebooks/>)

Author: Nelson Elhage

Published: 2010-05-02T23:14:14Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Nelson Elhage](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/nelson-elhage.md>)

Topics: [Software Engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/software-engineering.md>), [debug](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/debug.md>), [Testing](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/testing.md>)

Tags: [debugging](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/debugging.md>), [notes](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/notes.md>), [software-engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/software-engineering.md>), [test](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/test.md>), [writing](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/writing.md>)

## AI overview

The article argues that software engineers should keep meticulous lab-notebook-style notes while developing and debugging software. Although version control and reproducible experiments document some work, detailed notes can help track state, changes, observations, and hypotheses when investigating subtle bugs.

## Source excerpt

Software engineers, as a rule, suck at writing things down. Part of this is training - unlike chemists and biologists who are trailed to obsessively document everything they do in their lab notebooks, computer scientists are taught to document the end results of their work, but aren't, in general, taught to take notes as they go, and document the steps they take in building a system. 6.005, MIT's new introductory software engineering class, attempted to require its students to keep lab notebooks for a few semesters, and was met with near-universal complaints and ridicule from the students ("Lab notebooks?