That being said, now that you know how to write a procedure, it`s time to move on and document your company`s next most important procedure. Before you know it, you`ll have a comprehensive framework for everything you do, making your entire business more consistent, efficient, and most importantly, scalable. The physical limitation of needing new paper every time you use your procedures, as well as the inconvenience of physically filing closed instances, let alone finding them or trying to update your procedure, means that only the smallest informal procedures work on paper. Even then, there is no other advantage than the initial convenience of writing it for the first time without a computer. To write better computer instructions or procedures, you must first put yourself in the shoes of the reader or user. Limit a procedure to seven steps and preferably less. Try to put all the steps on the same screen. Examples We can draw the following conclusions and generalizations about writing software instructions: Check with the team if the steps you have documented cover the procedure in its current state (not idealized – it should be accurate, not impressive). Once you have done that, you can proceed to test the procedure to make sure that no steps have been forgotten. The first thing to do is to orient users: tell users where they are and what you want them to see on their screen, such as the name of the window they should look at.
Then, tell them which button(s) to press in the current window and/or which text to type in which fields. Next, tell them how to get to the next step/location and describe what they need to see on the screen when performing this action. It is a state-of-the-art business process management (BPM) software that allows you to document all your operations in models. You can then run individual checklists from these templates each time you want to perform a procedure. With these actionable checklists, you can complete your tasks and track your progress. Although the layout ultimately depends on the format you have chosen for your procedures, you should at least answer the following questions in a backgrounder before proceeding: We finally get to write! However, as with almost all types of content, you need to start with a bang in your introduction. Watch this automation webinar to learn more about automating your processes and procedures: Perhaps more than in any other form of technical writing, graphics are essential to instructions. Sometimes words just can`t explain the step. Illustrations are often crucial to readers` ability to visualize what needs to be done. Make sure the graphics represent the image from the reader`s point of view. Special Notes: You may need to educate readers about the ways in which they can damage their equipment or waste supplies, derail the entire process, injure themselves or others – even seriously or fatally. Companies have been sued for failing to comply with these special communications, for poorly drafted special notices, or for special notices that were out of place.
See the special notes for a full discussion of the appropriate use of these special notices, as well as their format and placement in the instructions. The template becomes quite simple and applies to most types of step-by-step instructions, not just computer instructions. Now all you have to do is deploy it and share it with the teams that will start using it. There`s not much to say for this step, except that it should be much easier if you`ve worked closely with the team that will use it, or at least with senior staff. A procedure is a list of detailed instructions for achieving a specific goal. These instructions remain consistent across projects, but they can be optimized and improved if the process itself lags behind underperformance. **Do not attempt to write all procedures or steps at once. In the days of printed materials, it was practically necessary to disseminate them. Now you can create as things appear. Therefore, I recommend that companies start with the procedures that directly or indirectly bring them money. OR start with the things people forget or mess up most often.
I want to have more chances on my skills in writing a proposal. We would therefore like to have an example of a suggestion. Thank you in advance for your kind information. Some instructions have only one task, but many steps within that single task. For example, imagine instructions for assembling a children`s swing. In my own experience, it was over 130 steps! This can be a little intimidating. A good approach is to group similar and related steps into phases and renumber the steps in each new phase. A phase is then a group of similar steps within a single-task procedure. In the example of the swing, the configuration of the frame would be a phase; Anchoring it in the ground would be another; Assembling the swing would be another. As someone who has been writing this kind of content for centuries (ok, just a slight exaggeration), I love Process Street for many reasons.
One of the most important is the ability to combine the checklist approach to get things done with detailed instructions directly on site when/when needed. Without any context, all your work will be wasted. Everyone involved in this process in practice needs to know and agree on why it is important and why changes have had to be made. Adding other types of media to your process is a great way to more easily explain what to do and pique your readers` interest (making them more willing to follow the method closely). If you give your team 20 tasks with bulk text, it`s almost guaranteed they`ll want to cut corners, but by limiting the text to the necessary elements and using images, videos, and other files to support your point, you`ll get a much larger share of them to stick to. what you tell them. In other words, look beyond that to see if each task has been accomplished. If you sent an email with a call to action, check the success of this CTA. If the procedure has processed an order, check the accuracy of the records made, the speed with which it was completed, and the time (and staff) required to complete it. If you end up making changes, be sure to test the procedure again and measure the results again, and then repeat the process until you are satisfied with the result. Note the audience, what the procedure is supposed to do, who will do it, and why it`s important (usually through the context of how it fits in with the rest of the business).