How do you manage your documents to provide consistent and accurate communication? Depending on your organization, how do you control documents in your Technical Communications or Technical Writing Department if some groups or branches have different procedures for writing, gathering data, maintaining, verifying, or even for getting feedback? This can occur in an organization that is involved with a lot of different products. Think of a manufacturer which sells various electronics or other goods all over the world. Each division has to have their own set of priorities, procedures, guidelines, manuals, etc. What do you have to take into consideration in order to handle all the documentation that has to occur for each area?
Here are some things to think about and questions to ask before deciding on how to manage documents, from choosing a CMS (Content Management Tool) to developing your own methodology:
- Will it be able to manage master documents that will be reused in other documents?
- Will it be able to manage reviews, approvals, automatic notifications, version control, sharing, project plans (for meeting timelines), various image-type files, and meeting compliance?
- Will it be able to help you organize documents and provide easy accessibility to all documents (old and new)?
- Can updates to a segment of a document be carried through to other associated documents?
- Can alerts be set up to aid in communicating security issues, tracking updates, releases, or even new documents?
- If your organization is global, will all the documentation be done in the US or will some be written overseas? Is translation software available or will the local team manage their own documents? And if so, how are change or update notifications handled?
- Do you want to create an internal or web-based (an intranet) directory for each organization or product division and have it broken down into sub directories?
- Do you need a database-type tool or repository where files are indexed for faster retrieval?
- Do you need to set up a hierarchy or a content structure where the main product is on top and similar products below it with a documentation breakdown for each segment of the products? Each segment being anything from requirements, specifications, training, processes, procedures, marketing, etc.
- Do you need to work with mappings of documents or where documents link to associated documents?
- Finally, how much can you afford and what do you expect on your return on investment?
Set up a plan as to what you want the CMS tool to do for you and decide if it is the right fit for the organization. Also, is the tool you need user friendly enough, helpful, and will you be able to train others on it? No matter which tool you eventually decide on (either purchased, developed, or open source), make sure you have at least a uniform style guide for each division to use for consistency and clarity in writing, formatting and styling. This is especially relevant for global companies. Make sure your organization has the right tool or necessary processes set up to be able to answer ‘yes’ to the above questions.
If you have any suggestions or other ideas, please leave a comment.
Gail Zack Anderson, President of Applause, Inc., has nearly 20 years experience in training and coaching. She
provides individual presentation coaching, and leads effective presentation workshops and effective trainer workshops.
Theresa Pojuner is a Documentation Specialist with over 20 years of writing experience and is skilled in many areas of documentation, for example, Style Guides, Training Manuals and Test Cases, wth a specialty n Technical Writing and Procedures.