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Re: Sarbane Oxley process and procedure documentation: how granular?
Subject:Re: Sarbane Oxley process and procedure documentation: how granular? From:"Mike O." <obie1121 -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 12 Dec 2003 02:24:16 -0500
Andrew Plato wrote:
> Do you know what Sarbanes-Oxley is and its purpose?
I only know what I've read in the recent news articles... but the regulatory
landscape is familiar, no matter what industry. If you are a tech writer, it
doesn't matter how well you know the regulations. From the tech writer's
point of view, "compliance" is whatever your boss says it is, no matter how
wacky his interpretation.
In a big enough organization, compliance directives are set by higher-level
executives or consultants. These are revolving-door lobbyist types who wine
and dine directly with the writers of the regs. If you as a tech writer come
in and tell everybody "Look, here's what you need to do to be compliant,
you're doing it all wrong - see, here's the regs, read them yourself!!!"
you won't be there very long, even if you are 100% right.
If you are really an expert on the regs, that (plus some connections) will
get you a job as an auditor or compliance expert for a lot more than a tech
writer makes.
I learned this in the pharmaceutical industry. I spent many weeks reading
through opaque and deliberately ambiguous FDA regs, in the hopes of landing
a pharmaceutical job. When I finally did, I wished I had all those weeks
back again.
Nonetheless, reading up on Sarbanes-Oxley is still on my to-do list. Even if
I never get to use it in the workplace, just as a citizen I want to watch
and see how it is evaded or worked-around in the coming years :-)
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