10   Maintaining Manuals

Responsibility for Revisions

Too often no one is assigned responsibility for ensuring the manual is kept current. The result is usually a manual that ceases to be a reliable source of information. Make sure that someone is assigned responsibility for periodically reviewing the manual and initiating changes. This person is sometimes called the manual owner and is often the person responsible for the functions documented in the manual. Depending on what the manual covers, different people may be delegated responsibility for different sections. All comments on the manual and suggestions for changes should go to this person, who makes the final decision to revise the manual.

Usually the manual owner will need help with the following:

• editing
• word processing
• coordinating reviews
• printing copies
• maintaining the distribution list
• distributing revisions
• providing copies of the manual to new staff
• answering holders’ questions
• periodically auditing manuals in the field
• revising the online version of the manual
• troubleshooting software problems

The person who provides these editing and production services is often called the manual coordinator. If necessary, some of this work could be contracted out. The coordinator must have the time available to maintain the manual. While this is often a part-time function, if you have five or more different manuals to maintain, this would be a full-time job.