As you complete draft sections of the manual, circulate them for review. Make sure that you get agreement on the review and approval process in advance. You’ll want to know exactly who’s going to review and approve the manual before you get started.
Put a cover letter on review drafts explaining to reviewers what you would like them to review it for. Otherwise, you may have technical experts spending a lot of time correcting typos or pointing out formatting errors.
There are normally three levels of review.
As soon as you’ve drafted a section, send a copy to the people who gave you the information to make sure that you’ve correctly interpreted what they said, and they didn’t forget anything.
Once both you and the subject experts are happy with the draft, circulate copies around to others that are interested in that section and have them review it. If you’ve done a good job with your subject experts, you shouldn’t have major changes from this review, but they will often point out things that you’ve forgotten or ways to make it better.
Once the manual is completely written and formatted, circulate copies so reviewers can see all of the pieces together and formatted. At this point, you can send it to other organizations for their review, or send it to selected users for beta testing.
Many manual writing projects bog down in the review and approval process. If you run into a problem, refer to the troubleshooting table below.
Table: Troubleshooting Review and Approval Process
|
Problem |
Possible solution |
|
Reviewers’ comments contradict each other (e.g., some want more information while others want less) |
Have reviewers meet together to resolve their differences (don’t become an intermediary) |
|
Reviews are not completed in the time you’ve given them |
Schedule a meeting to review drafts instead of having them submit comments |
|
The front half of review drafts seem to be more thoroughly reviewed than the back half |
Give reviewers smaller chunks to review at one time |
|
Too much time is spent dealing with reviewers and consolidating their comments |
Reduce the number of reviewers to the minimum |
|
Senior management wants major changes to the document |
Make sure everyone who will review or approve the manual signs off on the document plan |
Before it can be reproduced, the manual must first be signed off. This is the final approval before printing and distributing the manual, and should only be done after the final technical review. Make sure that the person who must approve the manual for release reviewed and approved the document plan.
Some organizations have a sign-off box on each module of the manual. This is typical of policy and procedure manuals. Others simply include a covering letter with the manual from the approving authority noting that the manual has been reviewed and approved.
