ISO Mistake #6
Not properly defining the different types and scopes of documentation
Policies: policies are about how the company communicates with others, usually externally with customers, suppliers and others, but also staff.
- As a guideline, a policy is typically a half to three quarters of a page in length and signed by the most senior person in the organisation.
Procedures: procedures describe processes and are about what is done, who is responsible and how information is passed around the company. Procedures cover the order and sequence of activities, who undertakes them, who makes key decisions and how information is passed from one person or department to another etc.
- As a guideline, a procedure might be anything from a couple of pages to maybe 8 or 10. If it’s any longer than this, it probably needs to be split to create separate procedures.
Work instructions / guidance notes: these are about the detail of how things are done. Whereas policy and procedures involve more than one person, work instructions usually describe how an individual completes a certain task without the involvement of others.
- Work instructions vary considerably in length, anything from a page or 2 to sometimes 20 pages. It really does depend on the complexity of work under being undertaken.
Training documents: these are documents that are usually used for a short time before the activity becomes second nature, they then become reference documents.
- And like the work instructions above, may vary between 2 and 20 pages.
Forms and templates: these are the records that are completed to provide evidence that an activity has taken place.
Solution & resources
- Use the above definitions as a starting point.
- Workshop your definitions to ensure agreement across the implementation team.
- Create and share template examples of each type of document.
- Properly define your documentation process in a written procedure (which will be required by your standard anyway).
