Documentation Review
For any IT Manager and their staff, documentation can be a lifesaver. Keeping good documentation about problems that you have been presented with, or that arrive in the helpdesk email box can allow your co-workers to be empowered with the necessary tools to get back on their feet when the issue pops up in the future.
Writing and publishing the documentation is one thing, but you do not take the time to review the files and documents used to accomplish tasks, the documentation does little good. It is imperative that published documents are “living documents” to allow them to keep up with changes in procedure and technology.
Implement a documentation review
Take the time to sit down with your team and your co-workers (separately might be best) to review documents that you publish. This will help you and your team determine which documentation will best meet the needs of the organization and which documents need to be updated.
Sitting down with the employees who use the documents in small groups will also help ensure the usefulness of documents.
So we need to review documents… how often do we do it?
In my experience, the review process depends on the documentation. If you are sitting down with users to determine their needs, twice each year or when a process or technology changes might suffice. Working with your team to review and revise documents published should be much more regular and perhaps happen quarterly or even monthly.
This process will keep documentation top of mind and keep things from going stale. Working on documentation proactively can help keep fires from swelling out of control.
Hopefully this brief mention of documentation review sparks your interest. Please comment about your ideas and suggestions for making the documentation review process work.
