How does the document control system prevent the mess? (Part 3)

Tips for?Governance and Beating the Mess in Documentation

There are several tools developed over the years that are essential for successfully managing and governing documents throughout their lifecycles.

1. Master Document Register

• Like an inventory list, the Master Document Register (MDR), often called the Documents Master Index, is a list of all the documents you are in control of. A standard register displays each document's primary identifying information, including its number, title, most recent revision number, and date of issue. These details about the document must be updated in the MDR each time a new document is created or an updated revision enters the control process.

2. Document Distribution Matrix (DDM):

• It is crucial to assign document lifecycle duties to people or departments due to the high volume of documents that businesses frequently produce. This is necessary for governance and quality assurance reasons.
• It is compressed of a table that shows who is in charge of creating, reviewing, and approving the document. You can use it as a visual reference to see which documents are sent to which people or departments and for what purposes.

3. Document template:?a pre-made style and content manual for a document that illustrates how the final document should look. It serves as a starting point for document creation and is crucial to the effort to ensure the quality of content.

• A template may contain many elements such as the company logo, header, and footer, table of contents in addition to fonts and formatting styles.

In conclusion and back to the previously published articles (Part 1 & 2):

1-?How does the document control system prevent the mess

2-?Intelligent document control numbering/coding system

where we discussed what are the documents control process and its life cycle, we can conclude that?there is a minimum list of tools required to achieve an ideal document control system that can beat the mess of the documentation:

• Source of requirements:?you have to determine the source that evolves the document control process (e.g: organization's policy, customer requirements, regulatory requirements, certification requirements)
• Document control job description:?To define the tasks, duties, functions, and responsibilities of a document controller.
• Document control procedure:?that regulates the methods by which documentation is created, stored, approved, updated, published, archived, and disposed of.
• Templates:?including document templates, Registers, matrices, and checklists.
• Controlled repository:?to store a set of files, as well as the history of changes made to those files
• KPIs:?to monitor the efficiency and performance of the document control process.

Now you've done something great and the mission of constructing a document control system has been accomplished so it is the time to celebrate beating the mess in your documentation.

Published articles (Part 1 & 2)