That’s when your boss says, “Process? Did I say ‘process’? I meant processezzz! Plural!”  And before you can blurt out, “What do you mean?”, the boss says you need to develop procedures for all accounting processes, not just the one.  Oh, and he wants them by the end of the month!

A weak “Sure, boss…” escapes from your lips as “el jefe” turns and leaves, but an instant later, you’re thinking, “No way!”  You can’t possibly get all your accounting processes documented that quickly!  Or can you?

Break Down the Documentation Process into Its Component Parts

Start by mapping out the business process you need to document.  The process map acts as an outline for your procedure writing: you have to know the steps in the process that need documenting before you start writing.  With process maps in hand — one for each business process — you’re ready to start writing procedures.  Here’s where using pre-written procedures can save you time.

How You Can Use a Pre-Written Procedure to Save Time

If you’re looking for sample accounting procedures for your accounting processes, the Bizmanualz CFO Accounting Policies-Procedures Manuals set contains many sample accounting procedures you can use as starting points.  The CFO bundle contains 239 prewritten accounting procedure templates and 373 accounting forms, organized into five functional areas, or business manuals.  The CFO set covers the ten core accounting cycles.

Once the manuals arrive, the next step is “find an example procedure – a model for the one you need to write”.  All Bizmanualz procedures are in Microsoft Word format and can be easily tailored to fit your specific business process.  Let’s say you’re writing a procedure for vendor acquisition, or the “new vendor” process.  Where would you start?

The vendor process map you wrote shows eight steps:

1. Evaluate business requirements;
2. Identify qualified vendors;
3. Interview, Inspect and test vendor;
4. Review results and approve vendor;
5. Order from vendors;
6. Log orders and delivery performance;
7. Review performance against specifications; and
8. Vendor-related corrective and preventive actions.

Accounting Manual Index

The Accounting Policies, Procedures, and Forms manual contains a Vendor Selection procedure that you can customize.  How do you find it?  In the back of the manual, you’ll find the “Index”.  Search the index for your keyword, “vendor”.  (You could also look through the table of contents in the front of the manual.)  You find the Vendor Selection procedure, containing three steps, or activities (Vendor Selection, Vendor Inspection, and Vendor Files), in the “Purchasing” section.

Your process consists of eight activities, so you expand the prewritten procedure, adding the other five steps, or otherwise modify the Bizmanualz procedure to reflect your actual situation.  Add your process map (a handy visual aid) to the front of the procedure, and you’re done!

Writing a new procedure can take between 4 and 40 hours, depending on the complexity of the process you’re documenting and whether forms are required.  The complexity of a process, as well as your level of expertise in that subject, determines the amount of research — into standards, laws or regulations, references, and the like — you need to do.  Forms also require time and effort to research and produce, assuming you don’t already have them.  The Bizmanualz Vendor Selection procedure contains six pages of forms, including a detailed vendor inspection checklist.  Many Bizmanualz procedures also include a “References” section, which can help you as you research certain topics.

Let’s say this is a 40-hour procedure to create, with forms.  If you use the Bizmanualz procedure, with minor modifications you could have the same procedure ready in less than a day, saving yourself a great deal of time (and your eyes, a lot of wear).  Using a single procedure, saving 38 hours of time off the 40 you planned on, practically pays for the entire five-manual CFO series.

And you’re going to find more than one procedure you can adapt to your business requirements.  Most companies find dozens of useful procedures, which translates to hundreds of hours of time saved, before you factor in the opportunity cost of waiting for the procedures to be completed.

So, the next time you need to write procedures fast, take a look at the complete collection of Bizmanualz business policies and procedures.  Get your procedures project done now…before the end-of-month deadline your boss gave you.

Last week, we identified three elements that drive up your cost of compliance: cost of improvement, cost of review, and cost of scale.  Your cost of improvement can be managed by the improvement projects you choose.  Your cost of review is a relatively fixed, ongoing yearly expense, based on your cost of scale.  Your cost of scale defines how expensive your entire compliance program will be, now and in the future.  Ergo, the more procedures you write, the more expensive compliance becomes.

How Do You Keep Your Compliance Costs Under Control?

Writing procedures for internal control can produce diminishing returns.  Every procedure written carries with it a lot of overhead.  Overhead in this case consists of more than the original documentation effort — the design and development.  It includes implementation and review — document control, training, usage, auditing, management review, and regular updates.

Writing more procedures costs more money; it also reduces risk, but only up to a point.  The point of diminishing returns is where the time and effort you spend on a task stops yielding rewards.  You reach a break-even point, and when you reach that point varies according to your situation.  The common perception is that as you write more procedures, you reduce risks (compliance risk, for instance) further. This would be true if you followed all implementation steps; the reality is that most companies do not follow all implementation steps.

Any implementation step you leave out increases your risk; you lose all the intended benefits of your procedures.  You might think you’re saving money by foregoing certain steps in the implementation process.  Think again.  The opportunity for quality defects, customer complaints, and material weaknesses rises when you take shortcuts.  The likely result is a corrective action loop due to user complaints that your policies and procedures don’t work.

Starting with a clear, compact scope is key to controlling your compliance costs.  The size or scale of your operation — the number of operating locations, number of employees, and the number, complexity, and interconnections of processes — means more risk management, internal controls, and processes to be understood, documented, and controlled.   Learn to pick your battles — focus on the most important processes first!

Map out your core processes with a “big systems perspective” process map.  ISO 9001 certification requires six procedures — document control, record control, internal auditing, control of nonconformities, corrective action, and preventive action — so if ISO 9001 certification is what you’re after, start with those processes.    Sarbanes-Oxley compliance is risk-based, so identify the greatest risks to your company, prioritize them, and write procedures that address those risks first.  This will give you the greatest return on your procedure investment.

Quality defects are to ISO 9001 as financial risks are to regulations like the 8th EU Directive and Sarbanes-Oxley.  You can reduce the scope of your compliance program by addressing the areas with the most defects or the greatest risks first.  As legislative bodies and enforcement agencies have often said, you shouldn’t try to address everything all at once.  Start by reviewing the materiality of the defects or risks to your company.  Decide on a threshold, or cutoff, for materiality.  Don’t worry if you miss the mark on your early attempts: Improvement is an ongoing process, not an event.

Be agile and think about the speed of your procedures implementation.  Most process procedures projects stall because they’re overtaken by current events.  Immediate business needs take precedence, of course, but you risk losing focus and that sense of purpose with your procedures project when you shelve it, so you’re less likely to achieve compliance or those other benefits you were looking for when you took on the project in the first place.

Only write procedures you know you can implement fully.  A written procedure nobody uses is worse than none at all, because of the wasted effort.

Starting with a manageable scope will help you realize your goals and keep your compliance costs down. Work through your procedures incrementally; next year, lower your risk threshold and address more risks, then a few more the year after, and so on, until you’re comfortable.

Management decides on the internal controls needed to cover the identified defects and risks.  If they decide wrong and pick a threshold that’s too high, you’ve identified a material weakness in your quality or risk control framework.  That can be a very good thing, as long as you work on improving your internal controls.  Do so, and you have a working management system that ensures compliance.  Isn’t that what you wanted in the first place?

Using prewritten procedures saves time researching, writing, and implementing accounting policies, procedures, and internal control.  Download free samples now and get started on your procedure development project today!

Checking the procedure is a form of procedure verification.  You run a test before implementing the procedure to verify that the procedure works and meets all the design requirements.  But how do you know if the procedure will work outside of the design space ?  Will it work in the real world, with real users?  At this point, we are beyond procedure verification — we need to validate the procedure to ensure the process and procedure are working.

You are not done with your procedure until it has been validated.  After all, you wrote the procedure to close some gap in compliance, quality, or performance — how do you know your procedure is actually closing the gap?  Procedure validation consists of performing procedure training, process auditing, and completing a process procedure management review that will allow us to confirm that the gap is closed, the process is working, and the procedure works.

Process Procedures Implementaton and Training

Procedure validation starts with process implementation and procedures training.  Procedure training will be your first feedback from the actual users.  Gather the procedure users together and brief everyone on the main procedure tasks, changes, and process objectives.  Use your process maps to visually explain the process.  Highlight individual responsibilities for key performance metrics.  Ask questions and obtain feedback.  Remember: your procedure goal is “a working process”.

If you have a lot of users from multiple work cells or geographic locations, you need to prototype the new procedure — test it in one area before implementing it across the whole business.  Your procedure validation should occur before a widespread implementation.  In a small organization with limited scope, this is often not practical.  In that case, process auditing is critical to ensure that the procedure works.

Process Procedures Audit

Once employees are trained, how do you know if the procedure works or is being used correctly?  To find out, you need to audit the procedure at some point after procedure training. Process auditing is an internal audit of the process and procedure.  At some interval after training, you need to follow-up on your new procedure and see how it’s being used.  Is the procedure followed?  Is the procedure effective?  Is the process working?  Is the procedure working?  Is the procedure integrated into the process?  Simple questions, but they all must be asked.

If the process or procedure is critical to quality, compliance, or performance, you should perform a process procedure audit sooner and more frequently (perhaps 7, 30, and 90 days apart).  You are still in procedure validation and you need feedback to determine if your procedure is working.  Once validation is complete, you may be able to back off the process audit (e.g., cut back from monthly to annually): it all depends on how well the process is working and how critical it is to your firm’s success.

Process Procedures Review and Change Management

Once audited, how will you know if the procedure is performing as expected?  To find out you will need to analyze the audit data and process performance and hold a process procedures management review.  If you started your process procedure journey with a project charter, you have your original quality, compliance, and performance objectives.

Compare your audit data with the project charter to determine if your procedures work, if the process is working as expected, if you’re ready to close out procedure validation, or you need to make changes to improve your process procedures effectiveness.  Change Management can be tricky here.  Process optimization comes later, after you close out the original design, the process is going for a while, and you’re ready to improve once again.  For now, focus on important procedure changes to achieve the original objectives, in order to prevent scope creep.

Conclusion

We started the process procedure journey with a procedure implementation plan.  Your process procedures project continued with a process map, documenting your process procedure design.  If a procedure was required, you had to write a procedure.

The process procedures journey ended with procedure validation, where you ensured the process was working and the written procedure worked.  Once validation is complete, you’re ready to start your next process procedures journey.

Required Policies Procedures

Only company policies and procedures required by standards, regulations or company strategy must be developed.  ISO 9001 requires only six procedures, so why do many companies feel they need to write 40 or more procedures to achieve control?  Occasional users need procedures as a reminder of procedure steps that they do not perform very often.  Frequent or regular users do not need, and often times do not use, the procedure.  So how are those other 34-plus procedures used?  Most procedures are used to train infrequent users.  For training purposes you may only need a process map.  Are you using your procedures to make up for a weak training program?

Your Policies Procedures Template Design

When you do write procedures you will need to standardize on a procedure template design.  Start your policies and procedures template design by thinking through your document and record control procedures.  Your procedure template design should make room for a header block to ensure your procedure communicates your purpose and scope.

Add a Title, Policy, Purpose, Scope, Responsibility, and Definitions section to help people understand your procedure. Clear department responsibilities identify who does what and helps to declare which positions are mentioned in your procedure with a synopsis of what is expected for each position. Key term definitions reduce confusion; industry jargon should be explained in the definitions section of your procedure to help new procedure users.

Writing Policies Procedures

Before you start writing procedures from scratch, look around for examples, or templates, that you can copy.  Pre-written procedures will speed up your development, reduce your research time, and turn writing procedures into editing procedures.  I’ve found it’s a lot easier to edit a procedure than to write one from scratch, depending on the procedure.  Many procedures are really common using business best practices, so why reinvent the wheel?

If you have to write a procedure from scratch, start writing procedures using active voice construction to reduce task confusion. Subject, verb, object provides clear active voice construction for your procedure.  For example, “Accounts Receivable invoices customers” is clearer and contains fewer words than “customers are invoiced by Accounts Receivable.”  The extra “are” and “by” make the sentence longer, put the subject last, and force the reader to stop and reread the action.  Be direct and to the point — use the active voice.

Add references to related documents to improve your procedures’ usability.  Clearly note when your procedure refers to other procedures or forms.  There’s nothing worse than following a procedure and coming to a passage that refers to a company form and…that’s it. You don’t know what the form looks like, where you might find it, or what version of the form you need.  Putting an example of the form, with an explanation, in the procedure will save you and your users time during procedure training and implementation.

List applicable laws or regulations: clearly communicate your company’s need for compliance.  If you’re implementing a records retention procedure, references to IRS or equal employment opportunity (EEO) passages, for example, provide a brief synopsis and help you implement your procedures.

How to Write Policies and Procedures

Policies Procedures Overhead

Large organizations have a large number of procedures.  They have a lot of staff, business operations, and economy of scale to make their procedures work.  Smaller businesses should remember — the more business procedures you write, the more business procedures you have to edit, implement, train, audit, and review.  More procedures may also produce more audit findings in addition to more updates, more documents to control, and more administration overhead.

Many companies fail to plan for this administration and procedure overhead, so it should come as no surprise that their procedures don’t work as well as expected.  Every procedure becomes outdated, eventually.  Also, due to infrequent maintenance and use, some procedures are overlooked when it’s time to update them.  This can result in repeated procedure audit findings or, worse, repeated waste, fraud, and abuse which the procedures were intended to reduce.

The lean thinking solution is (a) to write only procedures that you absolutely have to write to conform to requirements and (b) to improve your training program to build competent and skilled employees instead of writing procedures you don’t have the time or budget to maintain.

Next week, we’ll cover policies and procedures implementation and training.  It’s much easier to comply with standards and train employees when you’re working with written procedures.  If you’re interested in learning more about your procedures, call or e-mail us for a procedure review of your written procedures.  We’re happy to provide feedback on what you’re using and tell you how you can improve your processes.

How can you use the individual steps of your process procedures journey to focus your business on:

• Adapting your core business processes to process change?
• Building repeatable business processes?
• Adhering to process standards or regulations?
• Managing your business processes more effectively?

Each step of your process procedures project results in an important milestone being reached.  Your entire process procedures project will move along better and quicker, with better results, if you achieve each milestone.

Figure 1 depicts the business process procedures journey work flow.  The journey starts with project management.  The extent of a business process change can be large or small — they may or may not require written procedures — but even small process changes require basic project management to avoid having the law of unintended consequences catch up with them.

1. Process Procedures Project Management

To get the buy-in of your employees, start your process procedures project with a project charter that focuses your team on clear project goals and objectives.  For example, if you’re working on an accounts receivable process, be sure receivables clerks consistently follow the process.

Your process procedures project plan should allow time for the six steps in your process procedures journey: allow about 12% for project planning, 13% for process design, 25% for procedure writing, and 50% for process procedure implementation, training, process auditing, and a management review at the end of the project (Figure 2).

Figure 2 – Process Procedures Project Time

Process procedures project management key milestone: completion of your project charter and project plan.

2. Process Mapping and Process Design

Your procedures process map should include the sequence of process steps with clearly defined inputs, documents, and records.  Make a special note of the process flow metrics, responsibilities, and goals.  For example, an accounts receivable process should note the invoices per hour processed, who is responsible for cash, write-off, or discount approvals, and how close the process is to the goal of collecting within thirty days.  This information will help with later procedure writing, process training, and process auditing.

For many business processes, a process map may be the only documentation needed.  Not all processes require procedures, work instructions, or anything more than a process map.  In fact, a form may be all you need.  It is really a matter of scale: the more employees you have involved in a given function — the more complex it is — the more formal process documentation you’ll need.

Process procedures process mapping and design key milestone: complete “current state” process map with process data.

Next week, we’ll cover writing policies and procedures.  Procedure writing is a result of formal, required compliance and training.  It is often much easier to comply with standards - and train employees – when you work with a written procedure.

If you’re interested in learning more about your procedures, e-mail us at info@bizmanualz.com or call us at 314-863-5079 for a procedure review.  We’re happy to provide feedback on what you’re currently using and show you how we can help you improve your processes.

Your business process procedures journey is driven by your business needs: need to survive, need for effective process change management, need for process consistency, need for process compliance, and need for process control.  Your entire business model is in jeopardy if you fail to:

• Adapt to change;
• Build repeatable business processes;
• Adhere to process standards and guidelines;
• Observe regulations; and
• Manage your business processes — and process change — effectively.

You can achieve effective business process change management, process consistency, process compliance, and process control by focusing on your business process procedures journey (Figure 1), a six-step process comprised of the business process management topics we talk about on the Bizmanualz.com website.

Business Process Procedures Flowchart

Figure 1 – Business Process Procedures Journey Flowchart

Notice how we talk about processes and procedures together.  Your business model is a system of processes.  Business processes need to be identified, communicated, and reviewed for there to be an effective change management process, with effective opportunities for business growth in place.

In Figure 1, the procedure writing steps are colored in red, to signify their optional status.  Not all processes require procedure writing; there’s a lot of overhead tied to every business procedure you write so that the more business procedures you write, the more procedures you have to edit, implement, train people on, audit, and review.  Only company procedures required by standards, regulations, or company strategy must be developed.

Michael Gerber’s book, the E-Myth, explains how important it is for entrepreneurs to think about working “on” their business instead of “in” their business.  Working too closely inside of your business processes is sometimes referred to as “business myopia” — being too close to your processes can keep you from advancing on the business process procedures journey.

Once you start working on your business — not in it — you can identify key business processes, practice communicating critical business process metrics and information, and review those business process metrics against the changing marketplace.  Now you are in control of your business process improvement.

This month we’ll be showing you how to advance — how to implement — each of the six steps of the Business Process Procedures Journey:

1. Process Procedures Project Management
2. Process Mapping and Process Design
3. Required Procedures (optional steps)
   • Policies and Procedures Template Design
   • Policies and Procedures Writing
4. Process Procedures Implementation and Training
5. Process Procedures Audit
6. Process Procedures Review and Change Management

In our next article, we’ll explain how you can use the individual steps to focus your organization on adapting your core business processes to business process change, build repeatable business processes, adhere to process standards or regulations, and manage your business processes more effectively.

Process maps are used for various purposes, including, but not limited to:

• Developing process understanding;
• Process improvement and discussion;
• Documenting a process; and
• Training and communication.

A process map highlights actual and potential problems – bottlenecks, backflows, delays, waste, and process gaps.  Process maps clarify process boundaries, ownership, responsibilities, and effectiveness measures (metrics).  Process maps are used in mergers and acquisitions (M&A), process improvement, and systems design.

What Can’t a Process Map Do?

It can’t do the work for you.  A process map does help you establish a shared understanding of what a process is and how it cuts across – links – business functions. The workers must still do the work.  However, process maps can be used for designing processes, writing procedures, defining and achieving objectives, complying with quality standards like ISO 9001, and building internal control. 

All process maps are not created equal, however.  The table below shows the purpose of each, as well as its positives and negatives:

Most importantly, process mapping is about communicating your process to others, so you can achieve your objectives.

St. Louis, MO — November 24, 2008 — Bizmanualz, Inc., a business publications, training and consulting company based in St. Louis, MO, today announced the release of a new series of hard-back books covering topics like Finance, Accounting, Computer & IT, Sales & Marketing and HR. Published under the series title The Professional’s Ready to Use Procedure Series, these books provide practical guidance and concrete examples of effective policies and procedures for a wide range of business areas.

“These books are excellent references for professionals involved in developing policies, procedures and forms for their department or company,” said Christopher Anderson, Managing Director of Bizmanualz, Inc. “Prewritten policies, procedures and forms in these books not only include concrete examples of what a well-written procedure should be, but also provide an excellent starting point to begin the procedure writing process.”

Contents of the newly released books are identical to the policies and procedures manuals that Bizmanualz offers in three-ring binder format. However, unlike the ring-bound manuals, books in the Ready to Use Procedures Series do not include CDs with editable content in MS Word.

“We have repackaged our content in an entirely different format to give customers a more reference-oriented version,” said Don Reed, Director of Technical Writing at Bizmanualz. “By not including the editable content in CD, we can offer these books at a price point attractive to casual users. And, after buying the books, if anyone sees the value in obtaining the content in editable format, they can deduct the entire price of the book when purchasing a three-ring binder & CD version.”

The release of the Professional’s Ready to Use Procedure Series comes just three months after Bizmanualz launched a new website offering over two hundred downloadable policy and procedure templates. Chris Anderson is a firm believer in giving the customers what they want. “Different consumers consume information differently and we’re just trying to serve them by providing the right medium and format,” he said.

Books in the Ready to Use Procedures Series will be available from online retailers like Amazon for $99. Five books in the series are already available for purchase, while others will be available in the next few weeks. Currently available books cover polices and procedures for Accounting & Bookkeeping, Finance & Treasury, Computer & IT, Sales & Marketing, Business Security and Disaster Recovery. Books for HR, ISO 2200 Food Safety and General Business Procedures will be available by the end of the year.

At the very beginning of the course, we ask the participants, “What is wrong with procedures in your organization?” The things that appear on the list are predictable. They include:

• Hard to find,
• Hard to read,
• Not used,
• Not followed,
• Too long,
• Poorly written,
• Poorly formatted,
• Out of date, and
• Not accurate.

Wow! That’s a lot of baggage!

Two Categories of Procedure Problems

As we go through our discussion on processes and procedures, we discuss possible solutions to these problems. Some solutions are easier than others. We can actually divide this long list of issues into two broad categories:

• Writing/development issues; and
• Implementation/integration issues.

Writing and development issues are the first we’ll tackle. Why are there so many problems with accuracy, poor writing, and consistent formatting and language? The answer to this question can be found by considering who writes procedures: too often the task of developing and writing important organizational documents falls to those who have little experience or training in process documentation. Documenting business processes is a much different kind of writing from any other.

They may have extensive process and organizational knowledge, but without proper experience or training, these writers often do a poor job of translating their expertise. Now consider that procedure writing is usually spread across a number of non-experts who are given little or no coordination and direction. What kind of a result would you expect from this crew?

Would You Hire A Plumber to Do Your Wiring?

Hiring or developing a central internal resource with expertise in technical writing and/or developing procedures is key to creating or updating procedures that are readable, useable, and accurate. With an expert individual or a staff in charge of developing operational documentation (like procedures), and process owners and experts as key resources, the result is a more consistent, useful, and professional-looking document.

When we talk about this issue in the Well-Defined Processes class, we lay out what a typical documentation team might look like (Figure 1).

Figure 1: The Document Team

Here we have clearly defined roles, where the Quality Manger oversees the quality management system, of which documents like procedures are an important element.

Process owners are typically department heads or managers, who are ultimately responsible for ensuring processes are carried out in ways that meet organizational requirements. The technical writer works closely with the process owner and those who have the ultimate process expertise — the ones responsible for carrying out the process — to properly document the process.

The final piece of the puzzle is the person responsible for managing the document system, such as release and control. Properly implemented document management systems can remedy the “procedure not found” issue.

Understanding Roles Leads to Proper Development

For a document project to be a success, all roles must be filled by qualified personnel. While some roles may overlap, and some may even be filled by the same person, it is important that all the various roles and associated tasks are recognized. You cannot realistically expect the process expert or process owner to magically transform into a technical writer and give you consistently outstanding results.

The key is to assemble the right people to document the process; in particular, do not overlook the role of the technical writer. A good technical writer can help you overcome many of the issues associated with procedures; poor writing, confusion, inaccuracy, procedural inconsistencies, and excessive length.

If your organization is too small to support a full-time technical writer, then other options are to develop a relationship with a freelance or contract writer or to properly develop skills internally though training, education, review, and feedback. While a good technical writer is central to creating good procedures, other elements are important as well, such as a well-defined process that includes a plan, review, and testing.

Next week, we’ll address the other common problem with procedures: not used or not followed.

People LOVE to Talk About Policies & Procedures

The topic does generate high interest in our Well-Defined Processes course when we cover the role of policies and procedures relating to processes. What should procedures look like? How long should they be and how much detail should be included? How can we get people to use/follow them? Besides in the Well-Defined Processes class, you can find these topics covered in the Bizmanulz article archive. Even clear writing on this subject, however, isn’t the same as a lively discussion where different experiences, observations, and viewpoints are exchanged.

While external training is still important, the coming of Web 2.0 is making it possible to take part in discussions and exchanges with people from different regions representing all types of organizations – all from your office. Forums that are geared toward various business topics are common on the internet, even policies and procedures.

Most of these forums take a question and answer format. The typical interaction is a posted question and one or a few respondents. Sometimes, however, someone asks a question that will illicit a discussion. People post, then return to read responses, and then they post a reply – sometimes several times. These are always the most interesting threads. And since they are business sites, posts are usually professional and use appropriate decorum. Getting back to policy and procedure forums, let’s do a quick review of some useful sites you might want to check out.

The ISO Quality Forums – http://www.qualityforums.com/

This forum sponsored by the International Standards Organization is geared toward a quality management system complying with standards like ISO 9001 and ISO 14000, with different forums for the various standards. While the topic area is more than just policies and procedures, they are a popular subject, at least in the ISO 9001 area. While activity is not robust, most posts do receive at least one response, even if they are not always timely. Interestingly, however, this site also displays the number of times a posting thread is viewed, and most have views that range in the thousands. So while posting activity might be slow at times, it is a popular site for exploring what others have to say. The policy and procedure questions generally seem to have the most views. It is a very useful site if your organization is complying with an ISO standard.

ASQ Discussion Boards – http://www.asq.org/discussionBoards/index.jspa

There is a category on the American Society for Quality Discussion Boards called Ask A Quality Professional that is very active. The topic of the forum is more about general quality than policies and procedures, but documentation is a common topic.

There are several posts a week here, and each post generates a substantial thread of responses – some fairly immediate and others coming over the course of a few weeks. This can be a very useful place is you have quality responsibilities outside of just policies and procedures. For example, you might like to visit the link below; an interesting thread discussing the requirements for maintaining external documents.
(http://www.asq.org/discussionBoards/thread.jspa?forumID=18&threadID=6187&messageID=114939#114939)

TECHWR-L – http://www.techwr-l.com/taxonomy/term/127

TECHWR-L (known as TechWhirl) is community of technical writers and it addresses a wide variety of technical communication issues. The policies and procedures category (where the above link will take you) is a subset of the writing and editing section. Unlike discussion boards that make up most of this list, TECHWR-L is more like a blog or archive site (much like our own Bizmanualz archive/blog) where posters share a story or a perspective in the form of an article, and others comment on it. Here is place to learn about real world experiences shared by writers facing wide ranging and difficult documentation challenges.

STC Policy & Procedures Group – http://mailman.stc.org/mailman/listinfo/stc_ppsig

The Society of Technical Communication has a listserv section devoted to policies and procedures where members can post or reply to questions. Guests (nonmembers) can view questions and responses, but not post. While this forum is not highly active, posters do tend to receive timely responses to their questions, and this is where you can find some real nuts and bolts type of information on procedure writing. While the site does cover useful topics, one problem is that the STC listserv area is not very user friendly, with an older Web 1.0 style interface. It may take some extra clicking and navigating to find and view particular threads.

Elsmar Cove – http://elsmar.com/Forums/forumdisplay.php?f=16

Elsmar Cove is a very popular forum for business topics, including the section called ” Documentation Systems, Procedures, Forms and Templates” (where the above link will take you). Questions are posted almost daily, and while they receive one or two quick replies, most receive more than ten in a short span of time.

Some threads of high interest stay active for years with an on-going discussion. The number of views a thread receives is noted on this site as well, and some long-lived threads are viewed more than 30 thousand times. For example, one thread where users post places on the internet to find free templates, forms, and samples is still receiving posts after 3-1/2 years and has almost 50,000 views.

LinkedIn Groups – http://www.linkedin.com/groupsDirectory

This has become one of the most popular methods for exchanging information among businesses. There are hundreds of thousands of broad-based and niche groups in the LinkedIn community; the Bizmanualz Policies and Procedures Group is one of them. If you’re not a member of LinkedIn, you’re missing out on a lot of opportunities!

Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/

Starting out as a social site for university students, Facebook has spread like a brush fire among all age groups. While extremely popular with individuals, it has yet to achieve its potential as a forum for information exchange among the business community. Still, a number of companies — like Bizmanualz — are using Facebook to try to keep in touch with their customers. Do you rely on Facebook for company information?

What Do You Think?

My favorites are the TECHWR-L and the Elsmar Cove sites. You might select a different one as your favorite. We would like to hear your feedback on our list of policy and procedure communities. Which site do you find more useful, more informative, and/or more user friendly? What are you looking for in an on-line community focused on policies and procedures? Are there some useful on-line communities we missed?

Your comments could make the Bizmanualz archive/blog more interactive and discussion oriented. Our mission is to help your business, including effective use of policies and procedures, and we’d love to hear your suggestions and comments on how to improve the Bizmanualz policy and procedure site. You can enter a comment below — or for those of you who receive this article via email, email me directly using the link found at the top of the email.

Happy chatting!