Businesses are driven by processes. More often than not, these processes require a set order of operations, and there are a lot of them. This makes it important that they are well-documented so you and your employees can refer to this documentation later. Here, we’ll offer a few tips on documenting a task.
Simple But Not Vague
When it comes to documentation, play to the middle. Except for tasks that are very specific by nature, documentation that is too specific may be less helpful. Of course, you don’t want it too open-ended or vague either.
Documentation Should Be Accessible
You need a document management system or knowledge center for your processes. In order for your documentation to be usable, it needs to be stored where it can be easily accessed by your employees. It should be searchable, sortable, and you should be able to track edits. If you need help weighing your options, we can assist you.
Do It And Record It
Or, DIARI for short. This step is crucial and will dictate how helpful your documentation ultimately is. Go through the process yourself, taking notes to build a step-by-step guide to it. Include every detail, including things like contact information and standard procedures. If a process requires a checklist of questions, that checklist should appear in the documentation for it. Include contact information for anyone who is meant to be contacted during the process.
DIARI also gives you insights into the process, potentially showing you ways to improve it.
Improve Your Process
Once you have those insights, go ahead and implement them, then try your process again. For example, if you think that changing the order of your process may make it better, run another trial and see. Better or worse, you now have more information and can make better choices for your business operations. Once you get started, you’ll find that creating helpful documentation for your business is fairly easy.
There are also some documentation solutions available you might want to check out, like Steps Recorder on Windows.
Subscribe to our blog for more helpful IT tips and tricks!