Re: ISO 9000

[Garret Romaine <GRomaine -at- MSMAIL -dot- RADISYS -dot- COM>]

>Misti writes:
>a) What *exactly* does ISO 9000 mean in the world of documentors?
>b) Does anyone out there have a recommendation for introductory books or
>other references that will help get our dox team started?

Regarding b), I don't have a reference, but you shouldn't need one. As for
a) I can tell you this:  my company was recently audited and granted ISO
9000 status. Basically, some documents were generated stating how we do
such-and-such. That was the easy part. The hard part is *proving* that you
do what you say you do.

If you have to "ISO-up" it's really nothing to fear. The goal is to make
sure that the things you are excellent at, whatever they are, become
repeatable. Consistent excellence is what you want, after all. So you lay
out a "spec" that says how you do things, get it approved, and from then on,
you get audited to make sure you do the things the document says you do. Not
too tough.

BTW:  Your operations group should take strict ownership of the operations
manual, NOT the publications department. Your involvement should be minimal,
and I'm serious. Don't volunteer to write the ops manual! You'll thank me
later. All you should have to do is show that before manuals are published,
they are reviewed. Get the reviewers to sign a standard review sheet that
proves they reviewed the book [not that they approve it as is:  I've had a
hassle with that part]. Save those sheets. Get a final sign-off copy that
shows that after a manual is reviewed, it is approved for printing. Save the
sheet with the approval signatures. Start folders for all projects. You
should be able to talk about how you create new manuals or update existing
ones in a couple of pages that are included in the overall operations
manual. You don't need your own document.

I hope you catch the distinction, or I hope that the model works for your
team. The point is that everyone is different:  that's why there is no
"template" to start from. You just document how you do things, then prove
that there are no exceptions which might pull down quality. And since docs
are such a small part of the overall effort, your involvement should be
minimal. Mine was, and I've passed every audit just fine.

Garret Romaine
gromaine -at- radisys -dot- com