Re: What do you call policy/process/procedure structure?

[Shari Punyon <sharipunyon -at- gmail -dot- com>]

I think I've been unclear in my ask... I definitely would not refer to any
particular document. I was not even planning to necessarily talk about
"Policies, Processes, and Procedures" although I might.

What I'm trying to figure out is how to refer to the class of "policies,
processes & procedures" in such a way that I can make it clear that I
didn't *just* create individual documents. Instead, I came in and they had
NO foundational "governance document" STRUCTURE. They had no template,
no definition of the types of documents used. No released process
documents. Nothing except a few very disparate drafts.

I decided the *kinds* of documents that would be created, and published a
list with a description of each. So "we have five kinds of documents we are
going to use (Policy, Process, Procedure, Standards, Guidelines), and here
is what each is supposed to be." I then created templates, from identifying
required sections (Not Intended Audience, but Scope and "Roles and
Responsibilities") to ensuring the header & footer had the right
information (it's got to be page X of X, not just the page number, etc) . I
also figured out the rules for who had to review things (for example, if a
team has a role/responsibility called out, the team lead has to review),
etc.  Way outside standard "tech writing stuff" and into the realm of "a
high priced consulting firm comes in and charges you out the ass to create
this" zone.

I basically had to build a structure from the ground up and then ensure
everything we produced fit inside, with a few iterations to refine.

My question is really: what is the best name for the FRAMEWORK I built?


On Tue, Apr 21, 2020 at 5:14 PM Peter Neilson <neilson -at- windstream -dot- net>
wrote:

> Bingo, Gene!
>
> Bear in mind that your resume will be read at most ONCE to see if it
> matches what the HR staff at hiring company think they need. They will
> will have their own way of treating your words that refer, for instance,
> to the User Interference Portability Subescalation Standards Plan, and it
> won't be good. Instead try to show how you helped your employer out of a
> difficulty.
>
> One of the standard pieces of advice, which rarely applies to tech
> writers, is to show in numbers how much money your work made for the
> company, or at least saved. We writers almost never see those figures,
> but
> if we do it's because things have gone from bad to dreadful, for reasons
> beyond our control but not beyond our blame. "The product failed to sell
> because the tech writing was late, and it cost us $10,000,000." With luck
> the entire TW staff have jumped ship before the sinking. As one tech
> illustrator said, upon being introduced to a piece of scary and crazy
> software, "Oh, now I understand it. It DOESN'T WORK!"
>
> In the advertising business, where I have occasionally hung my hat, the
> key phrase seems to be, "You hurt, we help." To get into that frame of
> mind you need to understand the potential client's pain, and it's often
> not what you initially think it is. You have to live inside his head.
>
> On Tue, 21 Apr 2020 15:18:36 -0400, Gene Kim-Eng <techwr -at- genek -dot- com> wrote:
>
> > Be as generic as you can and describe the documents by their function.
> > Industry sectors tend to have their own names for document types, and
> > using those names can slot you.
> >
> > Gene Kim-Eng
> >
> >
> > On 4/21/2020 9:47 AM, Shari Punyon wrote:
> >> I'm now updating my resume, and am not sure how to describe the fact
> >> that I set up the structure of polices, processes and procedures for
> >> their "Enterprise Technology" area.
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> Visit TechWhirl for the latest on content technology, content strategy and
> content development | https://techwhirl.com
>
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as sharipunyon -at- gmail -dot- com -dot- 
>
> To unsubscribe send a blank email to
> techwr-l-leave -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
>
>
> Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
> http://www.techwhirl.com/email-discussion-groups/ for more resources and
> info.
>
> Looking for articles on Technical Communications?  Head over to our online
> magazine at http://techwhirl.com
>
> Looking for the archived Techwr-l email discussions?  Search our public
> email archives @ http://techwr-l.com/archives
>
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Visit TechWhirl for the latest on content technology, content strategy and content development | https://techwhirl.com

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- 

To unsubscribe send a blank email to
techwr-l-leave -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com


Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwhirl.com/email-discussion-groups/ for more resources and info.

Looking for articles on Technical Communications?  Head over to our online magazine at http://techwhirl.com

Looking for the archived Techwr-l email discussions?  Search our public email archives @ http://techwr-l.com/archives