The Problems of Documentation
I've been waiting for someone else to bring this up.
Something about the endless regress of documentation makes me giddy. I spent an afternoon working my way out of a logical problem.. how to approve my document approval document.
How to approve document control at all. It cannot have the authority to approve itself, it isn't alive. so I finally decided that when I released my baby, it was *born*
a procedure to write a procedure I have to decline. a format, yes. I've got a sort of loose format. Purpose, Scope, Responsibilities, Forms, Procedure, Records, attachments, related documents, references, Revisions. if one of the above don't come in handy, I leave it out.
I leave alot of it out. Then again, this is a small operation and it would be hard to confuse the responsibilities of the preventive maintenance coordinator and the corrective action coordinator, because I am both.
Still. I wouldn't write instructions on how to write instructions. If I did, it would be a page long--maximum. The format and a few simple lines of text to explain each section would be sufficient instruction to any author.
Of course, I could see a need for procedure writing/approval procedures. I guess an organization large enough, that changes its procedures often enough, that manages itself with enough people -could- require a procedure and a process map to get the job done, but frankly I think my Latvian brother is doing too much work.
If -I- did something like that, it would look something like this.