Risk in using templates

Paper

“Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy.”

As manager, we rely on communication. The use of templates help us in the process of delivering correctly the information within a standard frame. Like armors, they have grown in weight until our “freedom of movements” are limited. It is time to think again the (meta) structure of our written communications.

A concept based on paper

Using a typewriter and telex, the production was limited to few copies and then the transmission of data required a system dedicated to store and retrieve the single document. Therefore, most of the meta-information were self-contained in each document.

This is a list of needed (meta) data:

1. Project Name
2. Date
3. Author
4. Owner
5. Client
6. Document Number
7. Release
   1. Note (caveat about validity date)
   2. Archive’s address
   3. Revision History
   4. Revision Date
   5. Previous Revision Date
8. Summary of Changes
   1. Changes Marked
   2. Approvals
   3. Name
   4. Signature
   5. Title
   6. Date of Issue
   7. Version
9. Distribution
   1. Name
   2. Title
   3. Date of Issue
   4. Version

Actually these are still used in common templates.

The reasons and costs of registering

Those data are useful to trace the delivery of the document. A sort of safety device for being assured that all the involved peopled are aligned on that subject with the same information.

Something that still remains unavoidable when the organization have reached a level of complexity.

Focusing on the core

Complex organizations need a formal communication system. However, this cannot substitute the power of the handshake. The system shall be able to save the energy created by mutual understanding and then create the structure that is able to allocate all necessary details.

Very often, these details are discussed by different people at lower level. Therein, information volume increases. Different skills give their contribution, in multifarious ways. However, the core of the idea (it could be an agreement or whatever else) shall be kept clear enough to recognizable from every one.

Project as “unique” environment

Project Managers, sometimes, find themselves between “rocks and hard places” when the communication flow involves external organization (e.g. customers and producers) and then the rules, set by governance, shall be “customized” taking care of the very specific needs.

Yesterday and now

The structured usage of templates is an heritage of another world. Nowadays:

1. Time has become a continuum (both for the frequency of updates granted by the capacity of channels and the dream of nullifying  time-zones with their cultural barriers.
2. Images are worth thousand words can be updated automatically.
3. Cost of making available  information (in a secure environment) tends to nil.

The risks related to the usage of templates

Beyond the obvious costs of producing and maintaining the bevy of documents, there are more subtle and dangerous problems that could hamper the effective transmission and usage of the information within all the involved organizations.

One size fits all.

If the uniqueness of projects cannot justify reinventing the wheel, nor it is possible to maintain a standard approach limited to the imposition of some downloaded forms. This operation is usually carried through with no links with the original methodology logic,  nor with any specific reference to the company’s workflow.

The standalone information.

Information shall be encased in their history to show the trend.

The search of perfection with no connection with the final destination.

There is an excellent post from I. Jacobson about the limits of a continuous search for covering every possible situation using a single tool (set of symbols).

Boring the reader stiff.

Once the information tasted of stale, very often the reception of the new edition is just ignored.

Conclusion

This topic is important enough for spanning it over two posts. The next will be dedicated to the proposal of applying “Kaizen” to the information flow.

Image courtesy of: http://mommylife.net/archives/2009/07/545_vs_30000000.html