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Subject:Re: Mission Statements From:Miles Jack <miles -at- NOTES -dot- CTL -dot- COM -dot- CY> Date:Mon, 11 Aug 1997 16:56:36 +0300
Most of the time "mission statements" are merely a management exercise to
put a tick in the relevant box. That's especially true if the company is
trying to get certification under some scheme or other (quality management
being a particular favourite).
However, they don't have to be that way. If you think of your "mission
statement" as guidelines to follow in the absence of direct instructions,
it may actually become something useful.
Applied to technical writing you could include statements like:
- We will never release any documentation which does not accurately
describe all functions of the product.
- All documentation will be subject to testing against the product by an
independent reviewer before release.
- etc
No comments please - I just thought those up of the top of my head - with
some time you could all do a lot better ;-)
If you can get management to agree and sign-off on these sort of statements
then you will have a statement that you can really use.
BTW - the best statement I ever saw included as it's last line:
"and along the way, get a lot of fun out of what we are doing" not only
agreed to, but actually written by the MD.
======================================
Miles Jack - Card Tech Ltd
Tel: + 357 2 376671/ Fax: + 357 2 377412 mailto:miles -at- ctl -dot- com -dot- cy
======================================
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