TW-Documentation

“Can we change this document type?” was the comment I recently heard from a project manager during a weekly status meeting. “I know that’s the type we’ve used for all the other documents, but some of our users for this project call this document something else. Maybe we should try to align the terminology with theirs for this project.” At first listen, I cringed internally at the suggestion but smiled and quickly planned my reply. “Well, it’s a good suggestion, but I’ll need to take this back to the department to discuss that change. We’re beginning the process of standardizing the types of documents we release, so any change to our current document types need to be approved by our department first.” The PM was a bit frustrated because she figured it was a lost cause and wouldn’t go any further. After the meeting, I pulled her aside to further explain our reasoning for not changing document types on a project by project basis – long-term it causes confusion for the user and makes the documentation set overall much more difficult to manage and standardize. In many corporate settings, documentation is a challenge to manage as it is. When the documentation department lacks clear cut standards as to the types of documents they produce and the contents of those documents, it adds to the overall confusion – for both the users and the writers.