Providing Job-Based Policies and Procedures that Support Compliance Requirements

Organizations develop policies and procedures to support industry certification and compliance requirements. Unfortunately, companies often develop P&P information that is not helpful to all employees who must use the information. In fact, one study found that 40 percent of U.S. companies failed ISO certification because of problems with unclear or missing P&P documentation, resulting in wasted time, money, and effort.

Urgo, Raymond E. Policies and Procedures Authority, The (2008). Articles>Documentation>Standards>Policies and Procedures

Auditing and Enforcing Compliance with Policies and Procedures: Who Is Responsible?

Auditing and enforcing compliance with P&P content should not be the responsibility of a P&P group or included in the job description of a P&P practitioner. However, the charter or job description may state that P&P practitioners are responsible for supporting compliance efforts.

Urgo, Raymond E. Policies and Procedures Authority, The (2008). Articles>Documentation>Standards>Policies and Procedures

Policies and Procedures for Training and Reference: One Source?

Should an organization maintain two sets of policies and procedure (P&P) information—one that is developed for training and another that is developed for on-going reference?

Urgo, Raymond E. Policies and Procedures Authority, The (2008). Articles>Documentation>Business Communication>Policies and Procedures

Of the Importance of Documenting

Documentation is important, from the end users to the developers, if you want your project to self sustain, if you want to ease the life of other people, and if you want your project to live a long and prosperous life. People were not in your head (and are not in your head) when you wrote that strange thing. 1-2 years from now you could be working for another company, what would be of other people who are trying to understand what you wrote? How would people easily understand how things work in a complex environment?

Casagrande, Milo. WordPress (2009). Articles>Documentation>Workflow>Policies and Procedures

Why is it so Difficult to Maintain Accurate Process Documentation Across an IT Organization?

I saw this question posed in a discussion on LinkedIn, and thought that it deserved an answer from an IT Process Automation (ITPA) perspective. One respondent to the question stated it well: "The answer is simple, if there is not a common bond and governance mechanism between process documentation and the technology that is executing the process, the documentation eventually atrophies and collects dust." In my days as an independent ITIL consultant, I found that training and getting personnel to use process as part of their daily routine was at least as difficult as maintaining and updating process documentation. There is a chasm between theory and practice when it comes to process execution.

Greene, Travis. NetIQ (2009). Articles>Business Communication>Documentation>Policies and Procedures