atw: Re: Version management details in a document

Caz:
You wrote:
> Small problem with that little rant Peter: organisations stand and fall - off 
> line - by
> program changes.  Fact.  We've all seen large organisations bought to their 
> knees for
> hours or days because of undocumented configuration changes.
>
> Unless I've misunderstood, this isn't at all the same as routine history / 
> version
> records of routine documents that civilians use.
>

My point is that if that stuff goes into a version control system with code 
changes etc
(or Bugzilla etc etc)  it can still be referenced without having to clutter up 
a document which
might otherwise be read.  I've seen that done, done it, and it works quite 
nicely.

Or a simple database can be used to maintain records separately to avoid all 
the white noise
at the front or back of a document.





> On Tue, Jun 30, 2009 at 12:28 PM, Peter Martin <peterm_5@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 
> wrote:
>
>> 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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-PeterM
peterm_5@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
If there are no stupid questions, then what sort of questions do stupid people 
ask? - Dogbert
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