Everything is Awesome - if you have a good document naming convention!
Kate Clark
CEO | eDiscovery Expert | Litigation Support | Legal Technology | Document Management | Educator
Now this will label me as full geek I know.
There is a debate out there that the day of document naming conventions is over – we can just use really good search engines to find everything easily.
But I say no! A good document naming convention contains a wealth of valuable information that makes everything, including searching for documents in a litigation database, easier, especially for construction projects.
To give you a (publicly available and non-client specific) example, these are the requirements set out in the QUT Document Naming Convention Guidelines. It requires that electronic files need to be named with the following document naming convention.
GDL_TILSDocNaming_V1_20160226.docx
GDL = document type
TILSDocNaming = document title
V1 = version number
20160226 = the date of the document
Whilst this is a simple document naming convention, it is an extremely rich source of information. I can find information by document type, title, version number or date. I know that I can use this trove of information to find relevant documents fast. In a construction project this information can be complex and is very useful to locate drawings or other construction phase documents which may not necessarily contain text to search across.
If your document naming convention is well designed and used consistently they are a godsend and notwithstanding all of the technology we have to hand, we should definitely not being throwing these little babies out with the bathwater.
Document naming conventions are a little slice of awesome in our world!
Engineering Project Delivery Specialist | Project & Commercial Direction | Dispute Resolution | Construction Law
4 年You are spot on Kate! The irony is that the projects who practice excellence in document management are the ones less likely to end up in litigation and requiring your services! Having a good naming and numbering convention for all documents is essential for successful project delivery. This is why good project delivery companies use comprehensive digital document management systems (DMS). Outside of a DMS, having each email with a modified heading rather than a string of replies under the same heading is a good and obvious start.
Railway Signalling & Telecommunications Engineer
4 年Its also so much easier to process from a data/automation side as well, I love working with teams that have strict naming conventions.
Business Support Office at Queensland Government
4 年Can also translate to other areas if a business - process documents etc
Construction Industry - Consultant, Speaker, Academic. Making Procurement Fascinating
4 年Agree with this Kate. Especially on large construction disputes, the discipline of document naming conventions goes a very long way.