Someone got on my nerve, so I wrote the following procedures on Request for Change, Amendment, or Update ...
This document aims to provide guidelines for change request in project documentation.
As expected in every project, changes, updates, and amendments in documentation are inevitable, as new information is received or when errors are encountered. Frequent changes however can be disruptive to productivity, so the following guidelines are suggested:
- Decide who should make the changes - you or someone else?
- If you wish to make the changes yourself, please go ahead, but make sure the file is changed to the next version. For minor changes, use alphabetical order to add to current version (e.g. 1.5 to 1.5a), For major changes, add next number after decimal point (e.g. 1.5 to 1.6).
- If you wish to have someone else make the changes, please indicate all corrections needed on the HARD COPY of document and give it to the person.
- Please request changes all at one goal whenever possible. DO NOT request bits and pieces of changes every few minutes or hours. Go through, at ONE TIME, all the corrections needed BEFORE passing document for change by someone else.
- DO NOT request changes to be made by someone else while you are still editing or working on the document, because it will result in different versions of the document, requiring further editing and additional work to merge the information later.
- If you have requested someone else to make particular changes while you are adding your own, please stop the person you request to make changes, and have the same changes added to your own document to save to next version, so as not to create unnecessary confusion and additional unproductive work.
- Request for changes on one document does not constitute automatic similar changes on other documents. Please make individual document changes on hard copy when requesting someone else to do the corrections. Example, a request for change in Data Sheet does not mean automatic changes in PA.
- Do not ask why changes are not made on particular document or in a previous version of the document. The answer is obvious. Either the information was not available at that time, or updates may not have been made to related documents, which is why individual document change request is necessary.
The list goes on, but the above guidelines should be sufficient for now. New guidelines may be added from time to time to help improve productivity overall, for our department. The purpose of this document is not to make life more difficult for all of us, but is aimed at improving our working together as a team.
