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Where the buck stops on product revisions is not really related
to where the development team (including the technical writers)
reports. The key question is, who owns the product (which
includes the docs) and is the ultimate arbiter for everything
that goes into it? It seems to me that a lot of people on this
list work for companies where the answer is "nobody."
In a well-controlled product development process the product
manuals are treated the same as the other development docs
(engineering drawings, manufacturing instructions, etc.) and
the doc team will almost never "own" the documents once
they've moved from writing to the review/approve/release
phase.
Moving from a model in which all the contributors are doing
their own things independently and praying that everything is going
to be in synch when it comes together at the end to one where
plans are extablished up front, everyone works to the plans and
changes are evaluated and cleared *before* they are made rather
than being made on the fly and reviewed after the fact is one of
the big culture changes that signifies that you're on your way to
being a "real" company.
> So, it's not only that PMO will control how & what docs are stored in Sharepoint but also how & what docs are created and updated
> by the doc group. Is that correct?
> Whether this is unusual or an issue really depends upon how you're organized. If you are part of PMO (as I am) then this doesn't
> seem completely strange. However, if you don't report into PMO - then yes this is unusual and there's the potential for
> inefficiencies and unnecessary checks & balances for you and your work.
> Who or what group do you report to? How do they feel about having management of docs taken from them or you?
> I don't think it's necessary for the doc team to expect to own all docs produced throughout the org. But I do think it efficient
> if they own and manage the docs they produce.
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