writing & editing

Changing useful process documentation is a waste of time, but so is trying to

use incomplete or ill-designed documentation. So how can you know when
to update? First, it is necessary to look
for three indicators: changes to
processes, changes among your users,
and an increasing number of internal
problems.

Changes among Users

Similarly, if your users have changed,
your documentation may be out of date.
The process or end goal may be the
same, but different users need different
documentation.
When I led a team to develop our
companys first grant-writing process,
most of my teammates had been writing
these grants longer than I. When I was
hired, the entire engineering group was
composed of six engineers, and the only
manager involved with grants was our
vice president. The process documentation we developed for this group was a
one-page flowchart.
Three and a half years later, the company employs more than three times as
many engineers, most of whom lack
experience writing grants. More managers review the grants as well. In addition to the vice president, our sales
manager, marketing director, engineering director, and business manager
review the grants. The process documentation for these employees has
expanded significantly: They receive a
tabbed manual of 120-plus pages, including brief, job-specific checklists, detailed
process descriptions, and sample documents, as well as a corresponding electronic version that links to documents
on our network and on the Internet.
The end productgrant proposals
remains the same. But the producers of
those proposals have changed. Our current team requires different process
documentation.

Changes to Processes
The most obvious time to update
your process documentation is when
the process itself has changed. Last
spring our team reassigned one of the
tasks in our grant-writing process from
the lead engineer to the sales manager.
Some of us manually marked this
change on our documentation. Others
didnt. Because we did not update the
official version, new team members
received documentation reflecting the
old task distribution. This disparity
caused great confusion, which we
could have prevented by updating the
documentation when the process
changed.

Internal Problems
Internal problems can also indicate a
need for updated process documentation. If team members duplicate the work
of others, fail to perform certain tasks,
or miss their goals, the root of these
problems may be unclear, incomplete, or
unavailable process documentation.
When our team added a new task to
the grant-writing process last year, we
failed to update the documentation.
Team members quickly became confused
about who was responsible for completing the task, so no one addressed it until
the day before our deadline. Our efforts
were inefficient, and teamwork suffered.
Then we updated the process documen-

Updating
Internal
Process
Documentation

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RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

BY REBECCA W. WALTON, Student Member, Lone Star Chapter

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

ow often have you painstakingly

documented company processes,
only to have your co-workers ask
you questions that the documentation
addresses? For technical writers working
on cross-functional teams, documenting
internal processes can save many hours
or waste them. Whether team members actually use process documentation
determines whether creating it was
worth our time and effort.
Working at a small business with an
active research and development department, I serve as the technical writer on a
team with several engineers and a marketing liaison. This team collaborates
with five department managers to
develop grant proposals. With so many
people selecting, researching, writing,
and submitting grants, its vital for everyone to follow a detailed internal process.
Periodically updating process documentation is one key to ensuring that
my team members use it. Its tempting
to expect them to use it continually, but
as companies change, the users and
processes change tooand so should
the documentation.
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When to Update

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writing & editing

tation, pinpointing who was to accomplish each task, when, and how. The new
documentation improved our efficiency,
productivity, and teamwork.
If internal problems consistently
impede your teams efforts, consider
updating your process documentation.
New documentation may eliminate
inconsistencies or provide additional
information for improving your team.
How to Update

The following tips can help you save

time when updating process documentation, and can ensure that your team
members use the new documentation.
Review Existing Documents
Begin your revision by reviewing existing process documentation. Even if the
old process is flawed, you may salvage
some of the material for your new version. Never toss out existing material
without thoroughly examining its wording, content, and design. Doing so will
not only save time but may also highlight
problems in existing documents and
imply solutions for your new version.
When gathering documents for review,
be creative. Examine your own checklist,
cheat sheet, or contact list. Ask your teammates if they have created a to-do list for
their role within the process. Perhaps you
could use the process documentation for
a different project as a template, even if
the content isnt relevant. When updating process documentation, avoid creating the new version entirely from scratch.
Interview Users
To ensure that your teammates will use
the new documentation, ask them what
they need and how they use the information (or why they dont). Ask about preferred format and colors. Consider where
they will keep iton their desk, in a filing cabinet, or in a common area such as
a library or lab. Do they prefer to read on
the computer or on paper? Do they prefer brief checklists or extensive explanations? Interview a variety of team
members to get the best overview of their
needs and suggestions. If your team
members differ greatly, you may develop
several process documentation tools.
Before creating our current version of
March 2005

the grant-writing process, I interviewed

nine users from four departments. At
first, I was convinced that I already knew
what they needed; I was just asking for
confirmation. However, my teammates
used process documentation quite differently from the way Id imagined. They
also suggested several additions that
greatly increased the documentations
usability: electronic documents with Web
links, information about organizations
issuing the grants, a network map
describing document naming conventions and locations. I also discovered that
two of the engineers had developed a
detailed spreadsheet to create the budget that accompanies the grants.
If I hadnt interviewed my teammates,
I would have spent days creating incomplete process documentation that failed
to address their needs. Instead, I spent
weeks creating useful documentation.
Creating documentation your team
members will use often takes longer, but
it provides great benefits.
Train Users
Once you have sifted through all available materials, interviewed your teammates, and slaved to create useful
process documentation, train your team
members. Even if they have helped
develop this documentation, walk them
through it. Schedule a meeting to officially distribute the documentation. Discuss the content and its use. Give credit
to team members who shaped the document, and allow them to describe the
portions relevant to their role in the
process. Most important, invite your
teammates to ask questions and make
suggestions. Its painful to consider modifying a newly minted document, but
your teammates may suggest a change
you can include in the next version.
Benefits of Updating

By initiating timely, user-focused process

documentation updates, you can greatly
benefit your team by improving teamwork,
increasing efficiency, and inspiring confidence in the documentation.
Improving Teamwork
Useful, relevant process documentation improves teamwork. With each

team members responsibilities defined,

the team can ensure that work does not
fall through the cracks and that team
members do not duplicate each others
efforts. Further, team members do not
step on each others toes by performing
their tasks out of order and disrupting
others work. When team members perform their responsibilities out of sync
with the overall process, they can appear
thoughtless and disrespectful. However,
they may be unaware of the overall
process or performing tasks that are not
detailed in the process documentation.
Ensuring that every team member has
complete, accurate process documentation can prevent this disruption and support a sense of teamwork.
Increasing Efficiency
Similarly, process documentation
increases efficiency, as it establishes and
communicates an organized way to coordinate the efforts of multiple team members. Periodically updating this documentation can further increase efficiency
by addressing shortcomings in the old version, current team members needs, and
new steps, contributors, or rules. If documentation fails to address these issues,
team members often disregard it, as it
does not meet their needs. Encourage
your teammates to use documentation by
ensuring that its up to date.
Inspiring Confidence
Periodically updating your process
documentation can greatly increase your
teams confidence in it. Team members
will use the documentation if they have
helped shape it. Interviewing users and
incorporating their suggestions enables
you to create documentation specifically
suited to their needs. And because it is
easy to use, theyll use it.
Rebecca Walton is the senior technical writer
at Williams-Pyro, Inc., a small business in
Fort Worth, Texas. She is also a graduate
student in the technical writing program at
the University of North Texas. Her previous
experience includes writing and editing in
a variety of fields, including print journalism, marketing, publishing, multimedia
development, and nonprofit fundraising. She
can be reached at rebeccaww@gmail.com.
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