Hi all! I was hoping to get inputs on how do you document SSIS tasks manually? Is there a format using which you prefer to document tasks such anyone who might not be familiar with SSIS can understand what type of "ETL" is going with the help of these tasks? how do you prefer to document the flow of the tasks in the packages?

SSIS is pretty self documenting, but in cases where I'm required to provide a ream of documentation I just use BI Documentor to generate "tech" docs automatically. Any business specific logic should have been documented in the requirements document before the package was ever built. http://pragmaticworks.com/products/business-intelligence/bidocumenter/default.aspx Chuck Pedretti | Magenic North Region | magenic.com

I do not recommend documenting by hand. I suggest you try specialized tools instead as http://www.ssisdocumenter.com/http://www.freessisdocumenter.com/alpha.php (online!)http://www.elsasoft.org/ - is the one I use and highly recommend - it can document your entire SQL server implementation Arthur My Blog

I do not recommend documenting by hand. I suggest you try specialized tools instead as http://www.ssisdocumenter.com/http://www.freessisdocumenter.com/alpha.php (online!)http://www.elsasoft.org/ - is the one I use and highly recommend - it can document your entire SQL server implementation Arthur My Blog 1) Looks like SSIS 2005 only? 2) Seems to be a bit of a security/privacy issue - upload your package to some random site? 3) Looks OK but the SSIS output is pretty basicChuck Pedretti | Magenic North Region | magenic.com

Download this zip to view sample output from BiDocumentor (I don't work for them or get any free stuff from them) http://pragmaticworks.com/downloads/BIDocumenter/BIDocumenterSample.zip Chuck Pedretti | Magenic North Region | magenic.com

It is a HUGE hole in the conception and design of the product that it is so hard to document. Still, I often put a line or two of text right on the diagram, next to the task, and sometimes more. It helps. Otherwise you just have to do it externally, take screen shots of the diagram, past them into a word document, and document away. How much that will help those not already familiar with SSIS is another matter, probably not much. I've never had great success with the various third-party documentation tools, they all crash or gave me otherwise unsatisfactory output. In SQL 2008 you can try writing your own code to shred the XML that the packages are stored in, but even the XML is extremely deep and random in its format, it doesn't shred easily to anything readable. Josh

Thanks all for the discussion. @Arthur z: Thanks for listing the tools. And Thanks @Chuck Pedretti for commeting on each tool. @Josh: Yes, seems like a huge hole.