Lack of Good Documentation Practice

When the very concept of Good Documentation Practice (GDP) is neglected, then lack of adherence to the essentials will lead to errors. 

There can be no standards when SOPs aren’t updated. There can be no proper filing when nothing is well documented. There can be no record of revisions when nothing is properly reviewed.

Damn it, you cannot call it efficiency when the whole system is accelerated, with urgency to get things done, only few days prior to an audit schedule.

Well, if an event that took place or an activity in the past isn’t recorded, then no proper reference can be made. It’s only when you have a detailed or narrative document, then there’s way to abstract certain points or refer specific subject for any repetition or reminder. Besides this, when documents are properly filed and placed, then even after a decade these documents can be easily traced. After all, good documentation does make sense and proves helpful.

For a quality culture, what’s important is strict adherence to policies and procedures. If this loop becomes lopsided, then there will be deviations and discrepancies.

For an instance, when an organization is unmindful of good documentation practices, then there will be multiple scenarios such as:

• Lack of relevant documents and licenses
• Missing or incomplete specifications and reports
• No reliable evaluation of activities or events
• Logs prepared but filed without signatures
• Changes without written protocols and consent
• No record of project meetings or conclusive project summaries
• Expense sheets approval without details or enclosures
• No clear justification for approved quotations
• Continuation of contracts without corrections and/or revisions
• No proper validation data and information
• No explanation for exceeding budget and/or expenditures

Agreed that an idea, an inspiration can turn itself into a project plan. But, without proper parameters, few sheets of random information cannot be termed as a comprehensive report

On the whole, it’s utterly slackness when an important event takes place and there’s no write-up on it. How and where things happened? Who said what? Everything unrecorded is like nothing took place.

Imagine what sense a user manual makes. Without it, for a novice, it would be difficult to operate a machine, device or an equipment. Similarly, a well-documented report helps someone, at some time, to refer or repeat the procedure.

With too many projects simultaneously, it becomes tedious task to record the progress, pending issues and milestones. And when anything missed, not updated, unchecked or altered repeatedly, then it becomes like a broth of cluttered documents.

Sometimes, a little document when misplaced can make a person forgetful of that thing. For convenience, a simple three-tier filing cabinet works well on an office table. You may label each with ‘Incoming documents, Outgoing documents and Pending Tasks’. 

In absence of proper documentation, an office table can turn up into great mounds of paper, and it becomes difficult to find out which is important, relevant, confidential and which is to filed or shredded.

It’s odd when something significant happened and soon forgotten. And, after lapse of period, when it is remembered, then there’re no related documents on that particular subject. Remember, a simple blunder can be an obvious loss.

It’s ridiculous when some managers, in order to make their offices paperless and tidy, dump all sort of documents twice a year into trash bin (except keeping few recently received documents). Well, instead of discarding all documents, some can be filed for reference purpose, some can be redirected to others or returned back to the senders with comments and rest can be put into a paper-shredder. Simple, isn’t that?

Image source: pharmamanufacturing.com