Over at Carstein's blog there's another part of the So you want to be a CSO? saga. This time about internal procedures - how to write them to be efficient and where to use them. I think you'll find it an interesting lecture...
Of course I don't need to tell you that they are needed, but handle them with care. You don't want to learn them all by heart like some companies require, they should be there to reach for them whenever it's needed, so just the generel guidelines should be clear - exceptions can (and in my opinion even should, but opinions on that differ) be included in the text of the procedure. Like Carstein said - a diagram is worth a million words, but only if it's good. I could tell some stupid examples where diagrams said absolutely nothing about the workflow, like when a process was beggining at the controler (on the diagram, and even some places in the text!) when the normal workflow in such environment was that the operator received the document first. After a couple of such procedures most people end up just ignoring them and doing it the way it's best, which in turn can possibly wreck havoc in the system. OK, enough of my ranting - head over to carstein before he finishes part 4 of it, which should be real soon...(in Polish only sorry, maybe he'll translate it sometime for us or I'll do it when I'll finally have my bachelor degree...)
