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Adding one thought to the excellent responses, writing the justifications
(by any name) might be an opportunity for capturing some statements of
values, which might not currently be seen as a requirement, but could
ultimately please the client.
On Tue, Jan 20, 2015 at 12:05 PM, Peter Neilson <neilson -at- windstream -dot- net>
wrote:
> It depends, somewhat, on the purpose of the manual. If it is to sit on a
> shelf then the organization and perhaps even the content do not matter, as
> long as it fills the requirements. ("This book fills a much-needed gap in
> the literature.")
>
> If people are going to use it as a catechism, quoting the rule without
> understanding, the justification can be buried.
>
> If the readers will need to understand the justification before they have
> much hope of buying into the rule, the two should be together.
>
> As an example of this last kind of document, I remind myself of the NFPA's
> National Electrical Code or of "Dangerous Properties of Industrial
> Materials" by Irving Sax, both of which provide at least some degree of
> justification for their safety rules.
>
> The last time I wrote a P&P Manual it was a "useless" but required book,
> but in the course of developing it I discovered that the client had no
> procedure for retrieving door keys from terminated employees. The powers
> that beed quickly wrote one.
>
> On Tue, 20 Jan 2015 14:21:10 -0500, Cardimon, Craig <ccardimon -at- m-s-g -dot- com>
> wrote:
>
> Hello, Whirlers,
>>
>> I am putting together a Policies & Procedures Manual, which is proceeding
>> nicely.
>>
>> I have been asked to include some justifications, which I will be given,
>> for said procedures.
>>
>> My questions involve *how* to include them:
>>
>>
>> 1. Should I put the justification for the procedure directly after the
>> procedure? This is what I'm planning to do right now.
>>
>> 2. Should I put all justifications in a separate section?
>>
>> 3. Should I put all justifications in a separate document?
>>
>> 4. If the justifications go into the same document, should the name of
>> the document be changed to Policies, Procedures, & Justifications? I'm
>> thinking no.
>>
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--
Elisa Rood Sawyer
~~~~~^~~~~~
Technical and Creative Writer
"Apparently there is nothing that cannot happen today." Mark Twain
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