How do you manage to keep your documentation up to date throughout a project?
Andrey GrubinPMP, PMI-ACPBrooklyn, Ny, United States
Most people hate doing documentation. It’s time consuming, tedious and often under-appreciated or ignored by the people for whom it is intended, or even the people that requested it! So what you do? Saving Changes...
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LORI WILSONRETIRED - Technical Project Manager| RETIRED - LifePoint HealthClarkston, Wa, United States
One thing I do that saves me hours every day is to show my screen during meetings whether in person or virtual meetings. During the meeting I type the minutes and action items and gain approval from all before the meeting closes. This avoids me typing minutes based off notes after the meeting, sending to all for review/approval and improves compliance with action items. Huge time saver, but a little like tap dancing on a moving floor.
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1 reply by Andrey Grubin
Sep 27, 2017 11:48 AM
Andrey Grubin
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Thank you Lori!
Saving Changes...
Andrey GrubinPMP, PMI-ACPBrooklyn, Ny, United States
Sep 27, 2017 11:22 AM
Replying to LORI WILSON
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One thing I do that saves me hours every day is to show my screen during meetings whether in person or virtual meetings. During the meeting I type the minutes and action items and gain approval from all before the meeting closes. This avoids me typing minutes based off notes after the meeting, sending to all for review/approval and improves compliance with action items. Huge time saver, but a little like tap dancing on a moving floor.
Or as the Manifesto for Agile Software Development states "(We value) Working software over comprehensive documentation"
Kiron Saving Changes...
Lenka PincotChief of Staff to the CEO| Project Management InstituteParis, France
To manage versions we typically use collaborative platforms such as sharepoint. Project documentation is structured and explained at the beginning of the project, each document has an owner and contributers, quality reviewers, but most importantly a purpose. No one will dedicate his time to work on a document without purpose.
I personally believe documentation is very important because it helps you to track backwards and to ensure collaboration especially with distributed teams, e.g Sharepoint allows multiple contributers to one document and version tracking. But structure of project documentation must be thought through and justified, no document should be seen as useless by team or management, otherwise it creates the impression that documents exists just for themselves and people will not be willing to work for on them. But when it comes to legal battles, documentation is often the key thing which is going to save you (if it exist). Saving Changes...
Eric SimmsSenior Program ManagerBaltimore, Maryland, United States
One tip is to make sure you're only using documentation people actually need and use, instead of documentation people believe they want. For example, if no one is bothering to read weekly status reports, see if you can stop producing them.
If you only deal with documentation people really use, it's not to hard to keep it updated. Saving Changes...
Andrey GrubinPMP, PMI-ACPBrooklyn, Ny, United States
Thank you, guys! Saving Changes...
Andrey GrubinPMP, PMI-ACPBrooklyn, Ny, United States
Thank you all for your feedback and suggestions on this topic! Saving Changes...
- Documentation Management and Control via Collaboration Platform like SharePoint
- Documentation Guideline
- Lean Documentation Approach
That is my experience also.
I would make sure you have regular copy of schedule put in the system, in case you have claim later on. With some explanation of change to it. Saving Changes...
