Often, knowledge workers hesitate to begin documenting their business processes. They fear getting stuck in detailed writing. They find it boring work, or they find it too time consuming.

However, there are other reasons knowledge workers don’t document. They may be too dependent on colleagues for creating informative docs. They may feel it is the job of their colleague to do it. They don’t know where to store their documents, or they think the document you create now is outdated in a month anyway.

That’s a problem.

But, these last problems have nothing to do with documentation itself. They are related to the governance framework of your organization. For organizations that want to become scalable using documentation, this means creating ways of working and guidelines on how to use it. Let’s talk about where to start. Here, we guide you in the first steps to creating your Documentation Governance Framework.

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What is a Governance Framework?

Governance relates to how we manage our organizations – the systems and processes, how decisions are made, sources of assurance, and the rules and regulations we have in place. A governance framework is a way of documenting these topics in a simple and concise way.

Governance frameworks can exist for many different components of an organization. Governance for projects is the set of rules, procedures and policies that determine how projects are managed and overseen. Data governance frameworks are a set of rules, processes, and responsibilities that dictate how an organization collects, organizes, stores, and uses its data. The same can be done for legal, IT systems, or anything else.

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The Documentation Governance Framework

Having the right guidelines and way of working for documentation is important. It helps spread information in the organization faster. It unifies ways of working. It helps onboard new hires faster, prevents loss of information when coworkers leave, keeps documents up to date, and it makes organizations more scalable. 

The documentation governance framework directs how people interact with organizational information. It outlines who owns documentation, how it's updated, and the rules for maintaining consistency and accessibility. Let’s dive into the components of such a framework.

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Building a Strong Documentation Governance Framework

At SowFlow, we feel a strong documentation governance framework consists of documented systems, processes and guidelines for the following topics.

1. Technology

Define which tech stack or tools are used to create or store documents. Having a list of organizationally approved tools and adhering to this list is often already a struggle in larger organizations. We recommend you minimize the different tools where you store documents to increase searchability, and you create guidelines about when to use what tool.

2. Structure

Organize your folders and help different teams streamline how documents are stored. Part of the framework should be about creating rules for folder structures. It also includes guidelines about: can co-workers store documents on their personal computers or only in shared environments? Can any co-worker create a folder or should only admins be allowed to do this?

3. Document Creation

What are the guidelines for creating new documents? What checks should be done to ensure no duplicate files exist between teams or people? What are the file types used or not used? Think of a company like Amazon where they explicitly banned the use of powerpoint. 

4. Document Maintenance

A very important pillar of the documentation governance framework is maintenance. Many times documents are created once and never updated, they live in folders where they mess up the findability of similar docs that are still used. To define guidelines for maintenance, think about how you work with version control, when documents should be updated, what happens if a document is not used, when documents are deleted, who is responsible for keeping docs current, etc.

5. Content

In addition to the structure around documents, also guidelines can be created for the content within docs. Think about the use of specific templates for certain activities, ensuring your brand is used consistently, having a clear tone of voice with a clear decision to use british or american english. Also think about the use of meta data in your documents. Who is the owner of this? Who should update it? What tags can I add to a document to improve searchability? A lot of guidelines and best practices can be implemented to improve how your organization leverages documentation.

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How to Start

Now, let's dive into creating your documentation governance framework:

1. Appoint a project leader and project team responsible for overseeing the creation and implementation of the Documentation Governance Framework.
2. Define the technology stack to use in your organization.
3. Set up and arrange the folder structure or workspace structure for the tools you use. See which structure is fixed for the organization and where you can be flexible and teams can create their own structure.
4. Create guidelines for document creation.
5. Create guidelines for document maintenance.
6. Create guidelines for document content.
7. Create an implementation plan that includes how you will move from the current AS IS situation to the desired situation.
8. Create a change management and training plan to make your organization aware of the new way of working.
9. Define a support structure where co-workers can ask questions during the implementation. This support structure can also help with adherence to the governance framework during the business as usual phase.
10. Execute your plan and transition to a new scenario where you are following your Documentation Governance Framework!

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By following these steps, you'll hopefully have a more structured approach to creating your framework. Have any questions? At SowFlow we’re happy to help, just reach out!

We wish you best of luck with your documentation journey, making your organization scalable and operations streamlined to set you up for business success!

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