Practical Playscript: Writing Procedure Manuals that People Can Use by Robert Barnett

Author:Robert Barnett
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Finance, Business
ISBN: 9780958638432
Publisher: Electronic & Database Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2008-06-05T14:00:00+00:00

Writing procedures as part of a team

Procedure development is rarely a single person task. The procedures are primarily for the benefit of the workers who will carry them out. I strongly believe that you should get the people who will put the procedures into action heavily

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involved in their development. If there is the likelihood of failure, they will usually be the first to know. But those people—while they may be experts in their dayto-day tasks—are not necessarily experts in business efficiency, system design or procedure writing. This is where the Procedures Analysts combine their specialist skills with those of the operational users. In the process you may have to deal with technical specialists or people with a higher level of skill than yours. I have found some analysts and technical writers who find it difficult to work on a team basis and I have also found technical specialists who have difficulty working with procedure writers.

The following guidelines are given primarily for the benefit of those who are inexperienced in working in a team environment. I have placed the emphasis on dealing with technical people, but the same general principles apply to all staff discussions. An ideal key to solving teamwork problems easily is to have an organisation policy statement covering the development of systems and procedures. This should state exactly who is responsible for such matters as content, format, language and style. However, not all organisations will have this type of sound policy, and you may need to develop unofficial means for seeking cooperation and making the team work. The following steps are given for the people who don’t have a corporate policy.

Step 1 - Establish responsibilities

In establishing who will be in charge, there may be a number of contributing

factors in the decision such as:

• personalities of the individuals

• the relative position of the people in the organisation

• the status of the Procedures Analysis or Systems Development Section relative to the rest of the organisation

• any organisational policy regarding responsibility for language and procedure construction.

Irrespective of politics and policy, someone must accept responsibility for

completing the task and ideally, this would be the Procedures Analyst.

Step 2 - Exchange information

Having established responsibilities, the next step is to exchange information

with one another.

You will need from the other person:

• technical information that they believe is important

• details of the functions to be performed plus technical instructions.

The other person will need from you:

• an understanding of what you are trying to accomplish

• an outline of your approach to the manual

• details of other functions or information that might be important to the department.

You will need to agree on what each is trying to prepare.

Step 3 - Prepare draft procedures 57

The purpose of the draft is to enable the technical specialist to verify the accuracy of the content before final production. However, you should also aim at clarity in writing style so that the other person only has to be concerned with the technical content—not style or format.

Step 4 - Review of draft procedures

It will probably be necessary to have a meeting in which you go over the draft, one section at a time.

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