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It is surprising how many organizations have real problems for which this standard would be an easy solution.
All documents shall include a standard header and an introduction.
The header should be the very first thing in the document, appearing at the top of page one. It should give the following four pieces of information, in the following order. It is strongly recommended that each line of the header be prefixed by a label.
Subject: <document title>
Contacts: <names of authors or contact persons>
Revised: <last revision date>
Location: <storage location of master copy>Location information indicates the location of the master electronic copy of the document. It consists of as much of the path name of the file as possible -- use the UNC filename, including the server and sharename, where possible. For example:
\\myserver1\bigproject\plans\phase1\this_document_name.docIf the master copy of the document is under the control of document management software, the location identifies the document management software and provides enough additional information to locate a file within that software. For example:
<department name> PVCS: <project folder>/<filename>
The first section of every document, which should occur immediately after the header (and after the title page and table of contents, if they exist), should be an introduction.
It should bear the title "Introduction" and should contain a short paragraph describing the contents and purpose of the document.
The remaining sections of the document can bear appropriate section names, or simply the name "Discussion".
Many organizations have a problem with documents that carry no information about why they were created or what they are supposed to contain. This makes them "mystery documents".
When a person receives a mystery document that has no header information or introduction, here's what often happens.
- The document quickly gets printed, skimmed, and buried in the pile with the person's other paperwork.
- When it is found again, two weeks later, the recipient has no idea whatsoever about who it came from, what it is, or where the master electronic copy of the document is.
The purpose of the standard header and introduction is to eliminate mystery documents and this kind of confusion.
All documents should be considered to have a "master" electronic copy that is stored in a public place (preferably, a place that is controlled by version-control software such as PVCS, Subversion, CVS, Perforce, etc.). This location is identified in the 4-line header.
If this standard is followed, then there should never be any question or confusion about where a document is stored or about which version is the most recent version.