11th May, 2011.Manage Documentation - Techniques
Much of the process for managing documents is influenced by any document management technology used on the project. For instance, document management software will usually come with a standard logical structure. You just plug in your specific names to make it real. Software may also enforce versioning and have features for controlling update authority. The tool may also describe the metadata needed for keywords and indexing.
Store Project and Project Management Documents in the Repository
The document repository holds all the project deliverables - both project-related and project management-related. For instance, the repository will hold the Project Charter and project schedule (project management deliverables), as well as the Technical Design and Testing Plan (project deliverables). When you start to consider your document management process, all of the documents your project produces must be taken into account.
Transition Documents to the Right Area After the Project
After the project has completed, some of the documents may be archived, while others need to be maintained indefinitely. For instance, project Status Reports can be archived (or purged) when the project has completed, since they are time-sensitive and have limited value after the project is completed. On the other hand, you should save a User’s Manual after the project is completed. These saved documents can continue to be updated in the document repository if the repository is something that is utilized by the entire organization. Otherwise these long-term documents will need to be moved to the document repository used by the support team.
Some companies maintain a central repository of major project deliverables that can be leveraged for reuse. For instance, the Business Requirements document that was created for your project may be able to be leveraged by another project that is looking into a similar business area. The Testing Strategy your project defined may be able to be reused by another project with similar testing needs. After your project has ended, the project manager and librarian should determine the information that can be leveraged on future projects if the organization has a repository where the documents can be saved.
Give Each Team Member His Own Workarea
Usually the document repository does not hold documents that are currently being worked on (this may also depend on any document management software being used). Each team member should have a workarea where he can store versions of documents that are currently in-progress but not yet in circulation. This can be a directory structure or a folder that each team member has full access to. Team members can structure their work area in whatever way makes sense to them.
Protect the Integrity of Your Document Repository
Large projects can generate a lot of documents. On these kinds of projects, the team needs to create a document repository. This repository can be managed with software tools, or you can have a simple folder/file structure on a shared directory.
If you are going to create a repository you need to establish some rules and processes to protect the integrity of the stored documents. For example, all of your team members usually need full access to any of their own documents that they create. However, you need to decide whether any team member can update documents created by other team members. In some projects this would be perfectly acceptable, while on other projects this would be considered a security breach.
You also should decide whether anyone on the team can add documents into your repository, or whether the update process will be handled by a person filling the role of a Librarian. Your first thought might be that having a central librarian role to control updates to the document repository is an exercise in bureaucracy and overhead. However, consider where this role might make great sense. If you have a vast amount of documentation, it is important that the documents that are added to the repository reflect a consistent and high quality. The overall quality of the repository could degrade if everyone had the ability to add, delete and modify documents anywhere. Instead, a librarian can control the process of adding documents.
The librarian is also responsible for the purging process. Purging old documents ensures that the information in the repository is relevant. For instance, weekly individual Status Reports may not be needed after three months. On the other hand, the Project Charter document is needed for the life of the project, even if it is 12 months old. At periodic times during the project, the Librarian can archive documents that are no longer relevant and purge the documents from the repository. |
