atw: Re: Version management details in a document

Bob Trussler:
You wrote:
> I am at a site were we are developing document standards, with accompanying 
> templates.
> The work we do is designing, building and maintaining large computer systems.
> The programmers (developers) are used to noting every program change in a 
> table at the
> start of the program.
>
>  23Jun09  Bob T  Added link to new server 03
>
> There is a debate starting about the correct, or the best, or the usual, or 
> I'm-used-to-
> this-format place to put that page with the version management and approval 
> details in
> a document.
> The page that has both
>   V1.3  23Jun09  Bob T  Added new server details
> and
>   Approved for publication by BBBBB on 24Jun09.
>
> There are two aspects being discussed.
>
> ONE
> Where do we put the page with the version history? 1  the full history on the 
> front
> page 2  current version details only on the front page 3  following the title 
> page 4
> following the table contents 5  on the last page of the document.   During 
> the course
> of a project, or during the life of the subject matter, the history of who 
> did what
> when can get quite long and spread over several pages. I suggested a 
> combination of 2
> and 5.   TWO
> Approval or sign off notes.  These can be in two formats here. 1  one 
> approval note for
> the current version.  This by implication covers all previous versions. 2  an 
> approval
> note for each and every version, change, or update.  This note to be added as 
> the last
> column on the version details table.
>
>
> Does anyone have any idea what the current, trendy, latest way to do this and
> preferably WITH SUPPORTING ARGUMENTS.
> I have looked around and found every possible variation.
>
> Feel free to contact me off-line with examples at bob-trussler@xxxxxxxxxxx
>
Well this might stir up a storm, but my personal view of this stuff is that 
most of it simply shouldn't be there.
As far as most users are concerned, it's junk, and if there's a need to retain 
a record of document changes (which I can understand -- with some 
qualifications),  these should be kept for lookup in a separate version control 
system of some kind.

Sure, a note that the document is approved (when/ by whom), if you must (and 
even there, I'd prefer an online system of storage which carries the 
implication that the document wouldn't be there if it wasn't approved)
Yes, a version number and release date. With these details the perfectionist 
has a key to the records of changes and updates, held somewhere else out of the 
bloody way.   What else is at all useful ?   Pages and pages of detailed change 
notes ?  YUK!    Get a life !

Who the hell then really ever reads the change details at the start of a 
document (or anywhere else) -- or who is there that wants this stuff that can't 
find it in a doc change audit trail ?

The emperor has no clothes. He's nude.

-PeterM
peterm_5@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Scitum est inter caecos luscum regnare posse. (It is well known, that among the 
blind the one-eyed man is king.) -
Gerard Didier Erasmus
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