"End result: all the techies use archived secret copies of the original document."
Ah, that rings a bell. I work for a big IT company, yes IT, so you may believe technical documentation is the bread and butter, here, right ? Right ??
Ermmm, no. I was exposed the documentation "process":
- SMEs create docs (Visio, diagrams), all assembled in a tidy word doc (template)
- the doc group asks a lot of useless people plus the author to sign it with word
- the doc group converts it all as PDF
- the PDF is saved on a sharepoint
I asked the candid question "Can we save, along with the PDF, the doc + any source (visio) ?"
Contemptuous answer: "No, because you could change the signature"
Me: "So, document is frozen forever ? You see how stupid it is, surely ?"
Them: "Documentation shouldn't change"
/double facepalm
At the end, we also used clandestine documentation.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
