Policies and Procedures
A colleague in town recently posted a question to a group of us (technology directors) across the city about our policy and procedures documentation. Seems he is trying to put such a manual together for his network.
I found one on our website that was developed before I arrived. In fact, it was the first document I read on the technology website that really pulled me toward Kerrville. I was really interested in changing that document because the language of it was so negative toward users. I try to view all posts and documents in the perspective of a teacher and the common thread in that document was “no” and “don’t” (namely in terms of what the technology department does and does NOT provide).
The other issue I have with the document is that the PDF is online and in reverse order. You open the document and page 18 is first all the way to page 1. This is disturbing. But what is more disturbing is that no one has noticed!?! Who reads it??
So this makes me wonder about the idea of a policy/procedure manual for technology! What is the purpose?
Is it for me to state our vision? our goals? What we provide? How we provide them? Who is the audience of our technology policy/procedure manual? Is this to be required reading? Is this part of my Acceptable Use Policy?
And from this, do I make a manual but then make a shortened version for staff? Maybe a “10 commandments” of our department?
Is it a living document? a wiki? a video?
20 questions. I will probably rewrite it this summer along with adapting our new Acceptable Use Guideline document.
