Hi, Jan,
Great questions. Here are my comments on each.
In your example it shows that the wiki page is growing fast is the amount of text. How do you assure that the QMS remains focussed on the critical to quality elements and is not used as a library?
Several points on this:
- Our wiki-based management system has grown to encompass more than ISO 9001. OH&S, Financial and General Management systems are being implemented.
- The optimal amount of documentation in a management system is very much dependent on its accessibility. A wiki provides great accessibility. We use indexes on every page (see Sample QMS Wiki Organization) and encourage contributors to use plenty of contextual links in the docs themselves.
- We try stick to the DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself) principle. Links and "includes" allow this. See Using a Wiki for Document Control.
- Documentation in wiki grew very fast during initial implementation. It continues to grow, but at a more moderate pace.
- Issue tracking software is a now-indispensable companion to our wiki. We use Bugzilla. If redundant or otherwise undesirable documents appear, they are eventually flagged and then merged with others, or corrected or deleted.
Is there a link to registration of training when training is required?
Yes. We keep many of our records right on the wiki, including this.
In your experience, is the QMS consistent, do writer assure their pages are consistent with other wiki elements?
Mostly yes. Our procedure to create and edit documents requires contributors to DRY and Bugzilla helps in catching inadvertent violations. We've found the system to be self-correcting.
Our group is relatively small (about 40), and that may help, but I believe the system can scale up.
Has the wiki contributed to the social network within your company?
Haven't really thought much about this one, but the wiki certainly increased tremendously network connectivity and made it asynchronous.
We haven't measured, but I believe internal email use has decreased. Firefighting has definitely decreased (as you'd expect with any QMS). Contributors to the wiki acquire "network status" as their contributions are visible to all.
We also have separate wiki spaces for uses outside the Management System, and all of them help in strengthening our internal "social network". One of them is a General wiki space, where, among other things, Geometrica employees keep a page on themselves and where we post news and links of general interest. Other applications where we use wiki spaces include Technical Notes, Project Management and Client interaction.
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Hope the above is useful.
BTW I noticed that the link in the original post is redirecting to the wrong page, and I can't edit it here. Could a kind Cove moderator please change the link in the first comment of this thread to
https://articles.geometrica.com/64.html ?
Cheers,
Pancho
