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The way how you track changes very much depends on who your audience/customers are and what their demands are. As many have noted, the military obviously wants to know for every comma inserted and removed. Which is not practical for any other use than tracking the change itself; It is of practically no use to those who need the document to complete a task.
On practically all documentation writing gigs I have always documented changes on a higher level. As a rule of thumb, I document only changes which are meaningful for the user. For instance, I never track editorial changes that are not at the same time functional changes.
It is completely another thing if you need to track all changes internally. And this can be done fairly easily with a version tracking software. It will record *every* change you have ever made, including a timestamp telling who did it and when.
Mladen
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Mladen Zagorac
Technical writer
________________________________________
From: techwr-l-bounces+mladen -dot- zagorac=lionbridge -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [techwr-l-bounces+mladen -dot- zagorac=lionbridge -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of Ronquillo, Michael [mronquillo -at- equitrac -dot- com]
Sent: Thursday, June 26, 2008 8:25 PM
To: Hemstreet, Deborah; techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: RE: Tracking Documentation History
I do agree that changes need to be tracked for internal purposes. But
what needs to be noted? Obviously the changes themselves, the date, but
anything else?
I'd like to hear what format you guys use for tracking documentation
changes.
And I agree Deborah, this is for ass covering. =)
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+mronquillo=equitrac -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+mronquillo=equitrac -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On
Behalf Of Hemstreet, Deborah
Sent: Thursday, June 26, 2008 1:18 PM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: RE: Tracking Documentation History
Leonard said <<I wouldn't question a customers preferences, but I do
wonder if anyone
knows what value is derived from such a list. BTW, this isn't a
rhetorical question.>>
=========
When working with a document with a LONG life-cycle, a lot of changes
can be entered in. Someone may need to know when a certain change was
entered, and who authorized that change. (especially if there is a
complaint based on that change)
I have worked very little for military related applications/devices, but
what I do know is this: They want proof of everything. If anything goes
wrong (and it probably will), they want to make sure that they can trace
it to something somewhere, and find the person responsible.
In other industries, it can also be for "but-covering" but not as such a
paranoid level.
Finally, it may even depend on what your auditors want. I know of one
company that got tripped up by auditors for not having document
histories. So now they keep TWO versions of a released document. One
with tracked changes, one without. The laugh is - those tracked changes
included EVERY SINGLE CHANGE from the birth of the document. The
document is meaningless, but the auditor is happy - go figure!
There are many other issues related to this... But I'm sure there are
others on the list that can add, so I'll get back to work!
Deborah
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