Re: Documenting for ISO 9000

G. G. wrote: > > Hi, > > We are running Informix SE on a UNIX platform, and now, thanks to ISO > documentation needs, we have to document every process in a system > that was built before we got there, while continuing with our daily > tasks of course.. > > Does anyone know of any software that might be of help? > > Any advice would be greatly appreciated.. > > Thank you > Gerard Godin OK, what processes do you have to document? I assume you are from the IT side of your business. Your processes are operational (and developmental but your post suggests otherwise). Document how to start up and shut down the system and how to back it up and restore from backup. Refer to vendor's instructions, keeping your own documentation small by describing only what's special to your installation (you could state that the document assumes reasonable competence in Unix and Informis administration). I understand that it's a common experience that people start out by trying to document to an impossible level end then cut down to something practical. What I would document in detail would be system parameters (kernel tuning data and, for OnLine, Informix tuning data); this should be kept offsite with your offsite backups for use in setting up a disaster recovery system. Operational instructions for the applications should, in my view, be an integral part of the documentation of the user processes, i.e. it might say something like: "After the last item has been entered select the 'F(inish order)' option. If the message 'Credit limit exceeded' is displayed, tick the 'Excess credit' box on the order form and place it in your 'Refer to supervisor' tray." It's not your place to be writing this - it's down to whoever writes the user's business procedures. What you could provide is a generic text on using Informix screens. This could be provided to the author of the business procedures to issue as a supplementary document or cut and paste into their procedures as they require. (A machine readable redistributable version of the Informix user guide would be invaluable - and in an ideal world, would be included in the product. The user guides will certainly be your basic source material for this.) What you should do, however, is QA their product to ensure that what they have written is, as far as you are aware, sensible (you might find them telling users, as I once discovered a user trainer doing, to abandon a long running query by switching off the terminal...). My understanding is that you do *not* have to provide documentation for program code; code isn't a process. Lack of such documentation may be a problem in itself but not in this context. The best software tool, apart from a word processor, would be any analysis tool for drawing DFDs (Chartist would be perfectly adequate). You (that is your organisation collectively) is writing a QMS. The "S" stands for system. It's not only reasonable but, in may view, essential, to use a system development technique. Do a set of DFDs for the business. Each process identified gets a procedure written for it. Each datastore (other than on-line data stores) will be a form which should also be recorded in the QMS. My old company developed its QMS without this, it took ages and was, in my view a mess. Ian