Standards and procedures?

Subject: Standards and procedures?
From: "Hart, Geoff" <Geoff-H -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 1 Oct 2003 09:38:02 -0400


Annette wonders: <<For those that work with company/department standards
(policies) and procedures, do you have a numbering system for each
individual standard/procedure? Why or why not?>>

Without looking at your company's current procedures book, tell me the
numbers of the policies on taking leave to attend a funeral and on overtime
compensation. Now tell me why the numbers were assigned in this order (i.e.,
how the numbers help you remember where to look in the manuals) rather than
(say) in the reverse order or why (say) entirely different numbers weren't
chosen. Now you know the "why not": in many cases, numbers are meaningless
to those who will use them.

Now look at if from a different angle. The flip side of this is that some
sets of standards or procedures are so well known by their numbers (e.g.,
ISO standards, IEEE standards, laws and regulations) that you're doing your
audience a disservice if you eliminate the numbers. They have already
memorized the numbers, know what each one refers to, and use the numbers
efficiently. Now you know the "why": if the numbers are meaningful, use
them.

Where does your audience fall between these two extremes?

--Geoff Hart, geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
(try ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca if you get no response)
Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada
580 boul. St-Jean
Pointe-Claire, Que., H9R 3J9 Canada

"Wisdom is one of the few things that look bigger the further away it
is."--Terry Pratchett

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

NEED TO PUBLISH YOUR FRAMEMAKER CONTENT ONLINE?

RoboHelp for FrameMaker is a NEW online publishing tool for FrameMaker that
lets you easily single-source content to online Help, intranet, and Web.
The interface is designed for FrameMaker users, so there is little or no
learning curve and no macro language required! Call 800-718-4407 for
competitive pricing or view a live demo at: http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l3

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.



Previous by Author: Questions - Going from Hourly to Per Project Basis?
Next by Author: Questions - Going from Hourly to Per Project Basis? (take II)
Previous by Thread: RE: Jobs going Overseas 2nd OT
Next by Thread: Questions - Going from Hourly to Per Project Basis? (take II)


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads