RE: Tracking Documentation History

["Hemstreet, Deborah" <DHemstreet -at- kaydon -dot- com>]

 Leonard said <<I wouldn't question a customers preferences, but I do
wonder if anyone
knows what value is derived from such a list. BTW, this isn't a
rhetorical question.>>

=========

When working with a document with a LONG life-cycle, a lot of changes
can be entered in. Someone may need to know when a certain change was
entered, and who authorized that change. (especially if there is a
complaint based on that change)


I have worked very little for military related applications/devices, but
what I do know is this: They want proof of everything. If anything goes
wrong (and it probably will), they want to make sure that they can trace
it to something somewhere, and find the person responsible.

In other industries, it can also be for "but-covering" but not as such a
paranoid level.

Finally, it may even depend on what your auditors want. I know of one
company that got tripped up by auditors for not having document
histories. So now they keep TWO versions of a released document. One
with tracked changes, one without. The laugh is - those tracked changes
included EVERY SINGLE CHANGE from the birth of the document.  The
document is meaningless, but the auditor is happy - go figure!

There are many other issues related to this... But I'm sure there are
others on the list that can add, so I'll get back to work!
Deborah


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