In construction projects, there is always the requirement to maintain a history of all drawings to see what has changed over the evolution of each drawing and why it was changed. General Contractors, Program and Construction Managers.It’s the thoughtful thing that an experienced technical communicator would do without even being asked for it. If in doubt, consult your management and/or the legal department regarding the different ramifications of sharing such revision history with the end-users.īut sharing the revision history with your reviewers is always a good idea and will bring you praise and earn you much goodwill within your company since such a list makes life easier for all involved. You can include such a log with the document itself or provide it to your reviewers as a separate document.

There is sometimes merit in being very transparent and letting your end-users know about the changes the document went through, and sometimes there isn’t. Whether the end-users should see such changes is a decision you should make after discussing the issue with your client or the Product Manager. Here is an example of a DOCUMENT REVISION HISTORY TABLE: Such a review aid will save a lot of time on the part of your reviewers and lower the tension between you the writer and your ever-busy review team members.Ī template for such a revision log should have a couple of columns and as many rows as necessary, each row devoted to a single revision. Problem 2Ģ) Send your reviewers a Document Revision History Table so that they can see exactly what changes have been made to do document and focus only on those changes since all the rest is the same in the document. Then after the time is up, send those who still have not returned their reviews a “gentle reminder” about what they were supposed to do. If possible, a day before the deadline, send your reviewers a reminder. For example: “July 31, 2014, Thursday, 5 p.m.” Then make sure you track that deadline like a hunter. Problem 1ġ) In the documentation business, there is no such thing as “ASAP.” Sometimes ASAP means “never.” Give them a concrete date and time when you expect them to finish the review. There are two big problems with such a demand. And you are asking your reviewers “to read” the whole thing and get back to you “as soon as possible.” A Scenario for Document Revision Historyīut imagine you’ve finished the fourth draft of a 2,000-page document with 250 tables and 360 figures. If the document is just a few pages long, then asking your reviewers to read the “whole document” and give you feedback is not a big deal. They are usually SME (Subject Matter Expert) engineers, developers, product managers or the client who hired you to draft the document. Reviewers, especially in hi-tech companies, are very busy people. Keeping track of the revisions you’ve made to a frequently updated technical or business document is important in documentation business.Ī document revision history table will save you a lot of headaches when it is time to send out your document for review. Include a link to any other files that were changed during that particular revision so you can find them quickly if needed. Include a description of what changes were made in each revision, such as “word choice,” “formatting,” or “spelling.”Ĥ. Include the name of the person who made the changes in the revision history template.ģ. Include the current date and time in your document revision history template.Ģ.

Designing a Document Revision History Templateġ.

A Scenario for Document Revision HistoryĪ document revision history template can help you to make sure that your documents are always up to date and error-free.

Importance of Document Revision History.

Designing a Document Revision History Template.

Document revisions