Re: Style guides - doc standards vs processes
"Metzger, Lucinda" wrote...
The style manual covers things like:
-Document layout
-Agreed-upon terminology
-Capitalization standards
-Product acronyms
-Trademark information
The procedures manual covers the actual processes, like:
-How doc projects are initiated
-How to pull a product sample from stock
-How to peer edit another writer's doc
-What form to use when sending a doc to review
-How to submit a drawing change to our drafting group
-How to post a doc to our website
-How to archive the files at the end of the project
Is there any time left for doing your job? While all of these things are
nice to have written down, this is secondary, one-off work. This type of
stuff should be developed in down-times.
And yes, you should be able to write documentation without a formal style
guide and documentation plan. The best style guides emerge naturally out
of writers doing the documentation and making decisions about the material
as it is being written.
Andrew Plato
But Andrew, what happens when that is part of your job? When your boss says that it must be done. That the company needs it for something, oh like ISO9000 certification?
Standards are nice to have. I maintain that they are necessary.
Or shall the engineers, software and other, do their work without standards.
I have seen the results. Wasted time. Parts that don't fit to other components.
Lost revenue, overruns.
Sometimes you need to develop it so that the project or whatever works the first time. Especially if you have more than one person involved in writing. A solitary writer has more latitude, but standardization will pay for itself.
Scott
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