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© 2004 The Elsmar Cove
Rev:  Pre-C
Rendered: Friday, February 13, 2004
Elsmar.com  --  The Cove!
Slide  196
Quality Management System Implementation
Typical Documentation Tiers
We ensure flow down of requirements from the top down
This is the representation which everyone and their brother uses to represent a ‘standard’ document structure. It is supposed to represent the dependence of one on the other. I will admit that often when I see this I think it should be placed up-side down because I see the ‘Quality Manual’ or Systems Manual as the foundation upon which the others are based. This representation, to me, better relays the understanding of the quantity of documents in a particular level. This ‘normal’ representation also is easier to follow as the requirements flow down which seems easier to comprehend than if the representation flows up - but maybe this is just my being used to the ‘normal’ representation.
You should note that there is a level or tier 5 in my documentation pyramid which is not on ‘normal’ representations. I include this level / tier because every company has ‘ad hoc’ documentation of some sort from time to time. For example, a process engineer may have a temporary (ad hoc) document to gather some specific information about a process for analysis. The documentation is not part of the ‘normal’ process, but… The operator (or whoever) is taking data. Was the operator trained for this? Is there a procedure or is the form ‘self evident’? Just a few thoughts.