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I have a situation here and I'm wondering how any of you handle it. I
know what I think is the best way, but that doesn't count here.
While anyone can contribute, the situation really applies to Very
Large Company (VLC) environments where documentation is produced in a
very distributed manner
In my situation, each department handles documentation differently.
Some, like my department, have a writer to write documentation.
Unfortunately, this is a minority. In most departments, "someone" in
the department writes anywhere from one to several documents. We may
be talking about over 100 different document authors at one time or
another.
Everyone then submits their documentation to a centralized department
who does some style/template enforcement, some monitoring to make
sure that documentation that was dues for a project is submitted.
Their main responsibility to roll out this documentation to the
field. As soon as the document is delivered to the field, they wipe
their job, respective of that document, is done.
The problem arises when a change is made in one document, which is
referenced by other documentation, referenced by other documentation.
The first document is changed, but nothing is done to accommodate the
rippling of the change through the entire document "tree".
Example. Document A describes a process for creating a Preliminary
Invoice. That document is referenced by a document describing an AP
system, which in turn, is referenced by a Cash Flow document, an AP
Web Page, and maybe an HR document describing what kind of an AP
person is authorized to handle Preliminary Invoices. This is all
good.
However, 6 months later, we get rid of Preliminary Invoices. That
document is changed. However, none of the related documents are
visited to see what the impact is and how they should be changed.
Does this situation sound familiar to anyone? If it does. what
procedures and processes did you institute to help alleviate the
problem?
I'm not expecting "the solution", just suggestions I can try to
internalize around here (I'm on good terms with some of the "right"
people") to minimize the damage.
BTW...there is not source control system in place for documentation
and probably won't be.
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