We Don't Even Give Ourselves the Gift of Information

Background

Although Users cry out for good User Documentation, the Users often overlook the need to write their own documentation for the processes that they perform infrequently. Instead, each time that they have to perform the process, they have to re-learn (re-figure out) the steps involved.

My Invoice System

This is a personal story. I am a one-person consulting company. To keep track of my billing and to issue invoices I wrote my own invoice system, using a package named dBaseIV (this was many years ago). I used the program for about 20 years.

Every year, I had to set the system to number the invoices for the new year. For example, "2001001" for the first invoice for the year 2001. So this is a once per year situation. I am the creator and only user of the system, and have all of the source code and whatever. I thought I would remember how to do this from one year to the next. (Do you think that way?)

Each new year, I would go out of my mind trying to re-figure out how to set the invoice counter. I even had a menu option for that task, but it took some smarts to make it work. It was very stressful.

Finally, I wised up. I wrote the instructions for doing this in a simple text file. I named it something like "NewYearSetup.txt" and put it in the same directory (folder) as my data files. Problem solved.

Getting Smarter

I wised up even further. When I created my User Documentation Course, I had almost 100 Microsoft Word (tm) files that I had to convert to HTML and adjust all the links. If I modified any source files, I would have to perform the same conversion on the revised files. I wrote (and revised) a complete step-by-step set of instructions for this. It works beautifully.

For a Process I Hope Never to Use

I even created instructions for a procedure that I hope I never need to use. I have a Sony Clie (based on the Palm operating system) Personal Data Assistant that keeps all my passwords. The password program I use is called STRIP, and it has no way to print passwords or work outside the Palm environment. However there is a Palm desktop simulator that can run STRIP. I wrote VERY complete instructions about how to use STRIP and the desktop simulator to view my passwords if the Clie were lost.

Give Yourself the "Gift of Information"

Whenever you run into something that you have to perform infrequently, consider creating careful step-by-step instructions for performing the procedure. Modify the instructions as you learn more about your procedure...make is so the instructions can be followed easily with a minimal number of decisions to make.

What's Does "Minimal Number of Decisions" Mean?

Part of the conversion of my Course files (see above) involved using a text replacement tool (BK ReplaceEm) on the HTML files. BK ReplaceEm uses configuration files, and I had generated several for various tasks. After having to guess which configuration files to use for the Course conversions, I wrote the names of the proper ones into my how-to file. This revision eliminated a decision...it's now much nicer to perform the conversions.

The Bottom Line

We have processes that we perform infrequently. We think that we will remember the steps. However, in reality, each time we perform the processes, we have to re-learn the steps.

We give ourselves the "Gift of Information" if we write out those steps as accurately and completely as possible, and store them in a place where we can find them easily.

Give yourself the "Gift of Information" even if you think that you will always remember the steps...you won't.