• reducing the quantity of documentation

• simplifying the documentation structure

• making the information more easily accessible to the users

• making it easier to keep the documentation up-to-date

• co-ordinating terminology between documentation, signage, forms, and other written material

• dealing with cross-cultural and linguistic issues

• corporate epistemology

Documentation that people will use

Management is often less about deciding what people have to do than about getting them actually to do it. A management initiative is only as effective as its explanation: in practice, what counts is how well and how quickly people understand what is expected of them. The quality of your documentation sets a limit to the quality of your management.

Editorial skills rarely rate a mention on managers' resumes; and it shows, when you look at most documentation systems: the information has usually been thrown together without much regard for even the most basic of editorial principles. Documentation tends to be organized - if at all - to make life easy for the writers, not for the readers.

Given the value of corporate knowledge this is a shame and a waste. We can help develop a better way.