Engineering Documentation Control / Configuration Management Standards Manual

Chapter 2Writing CM Standards

Purpose

• Briefly state the purpose of the standard. “To meet ISO 9000 requirements” is one reason for writing standards. Better reasons for writing standards are:
  1. Provide consistency in the day-to-day process operation.
  2. Furnish a basis for training people.
  3. Provide a base for improvement.
  4. Standardize the usual or normal expectations (not exceptions).
  5. Specify who may take exception to the normal expectation.

Applicability

• State the limiting aspects and the scope of the standard; example, “Engineering Change Request and closely related matters.”
• Include elements of the processes which are cross-departmental. Do not include department instructions since they are/should be subject to rapid change and aren’t cross-departmental business (nor are they the business of ISO certifiers).
• The standard shall not contain a separate section for cross-references to other related or associated standards. Such practice creates a “web” that is very difficult to both originate and to keep up to date. The related standards can be referred to by title in the text where they are important.

Policy/Practice

• One subject/topic should be included in one standard. Use of the word “and” in the title may indicate that separate standards should be written.
• Do not try to cover all the unique situations that have ever occurred. Leave exceptional circumstances to be handled by exception. This will normally keep the length of most standards to one to three pages. This makes them ...