Re: ISO Documentation (was Active Ownership)

[R2 Innovations <R2innovations -at- MYNA -dot- COM>]

A recent posting stated:
<snip>
>  Sure, this makes for, as George suggests, fine ISO9000 documents that
> no human on earth would ever read.  Yet it does not make for great user
> manuals, web sites, or on-line help - material actual humans must read and
> acquire useful information from.
<snip>
As a technical writer who has been responsible for maintaining the
ISO 9000 documentation for a major aerospace corporation, I must take
exception to the above comment.  This statement illustrates just how much
ignorance exists in the tech writing community about the ISO documentation
needs of  ISO registered companies. Writing ISO 9000 documentation is
_not_ unlike writing any other documentation, and  it _is_ meant to be read by
others. It should be clear, concise, logically presented, technically accurate, and
USESABLE.  It usually doesn't however, include things like indexes
and glossaries - not that they might not help in the useability of the
documents.

ISO 9000 documentation is documentation that _must be read and used_ by those
doing the jobs in ISO registered companies -- failure to do so will generate
nonconformance findings.  Thinking that ISO documentation is only
for the auditors is a very big mistake, as is making the procedures
so obtuse that no one, even the required users, can logically use
them.  From personnel experience, I can assure you that any good ISO
auditor who has difficulty in understanding and/or wading through your
documentation will issue nonconformace findings against the
documentation.  Also, I would suggest that that your management would
be none to happy to find that you've purposely sabotaged the
documentation this way.  If management has promoted this effort, then
they will suffer accordingly in ISO maintenance audits -- yes, the
auditors do come back, every year, and sometimes every six months, to
ensure the quality system is being maintained.

Technical writers should apply the same care and concern to ISO
documentation as they do to user guides or reference guides.
Remember, people have to follow the procedures and work instructions
you write, and someone else will check to see that they do, be they
the company's internal auditors or their ISO registrar's auditors.
Like any documentation, write for the user community, consider their
needs and work restrictions, format the document to aid in its
useability, suggest new ways of delivering the material - online vs.
paper - to the user, and don't just accept the old ways of doing
things.

Ralph E. Robinson

R2 Innovations, Specialists in ISO 9000 Documentation
Publisher of "Documenting ISO 9000:  Guidelines for
Compliant Documentation", an APEX '98 Award of Excellence
winner.
Visit our website at www.myna.com/~r2innovn/main.htm for
information on implementation and documentation of the
ISO 9000 quality standard.
email:  r2innovations -at- myna -dot- com


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