One of the core elements of success in any business organization is the extent t which the management achieves a stable link between the business and its environment. The business environment comprises various aspects which may include the business stakeholders, the influential governing policies and most importantly the organization’s base of clients. Maintaining a proper links calls for effective channels of interaction especially between a company and its clients hence the vital role of effective document design in business administration (Koschmann, 2012). The process of designing a document calls for an inevitable adherence to specific standards which have a special way in influencing the quality of the final products. In any given software project involving documentation in an organization, the documentation standards are key since they enable the business to represent the products and the procedures to the customers in a tangible manner. Standardization enhances consistency in structure and appearance hence making the document easier to read and interact with. In this paper, we discuss the various elements involving document design and development with reference to a scenario in the Adept Owl Company. The company specializes in the production of entertaining boards, as well as card and puzzle games. Since the products are varied, the organization’s scope covers a client base of all ages (Carolyne, 2010).
Style Guide
Different organizations are guided by different requirements based on the company policies and procedures. In the case of Adept Owl, one major requirement for information entry would be a style guide. Adept Owl ought to develop a style guide based on its objectives especially in terms of customer satisfaction. When information is entered under the strict control of the guide, the product quality is likely to be enhanced as most if not all the client needs will have been factored in.
A good format
The organization’s main aim is to come up with products which the customers can easily interact and hence relate with. During file naming, it would be important to use a format which does not only enhance the readability of the document but actually remains user friendly to all sorts of clients irrespective of their ages, class, educational levels or gender just to mention but few factors (Frumpkin, 2007). For instance, the appropriate format for date designation is YYMMDD or YYYYMMDD. With such an approach, Adept Owl would have ensured that all its documents are stored in a chronological order despite the span of time it takes to run.
Considerable Length
The other important requirement that Adept Owl may need to factor in is the length of the file names. It is required that the file names should not be too long nor too short. Depending on the software on which the project is intended to run, the company may choose to use acronyms or sequential numbering. A considerable length is therefore vital since long file names may not operate effectively with all software.
Information Organization
Since one of the major objectives of the company is to engage customers and improve products production, there is the inevitable need to ensure that information is entered in the documents in an organized manner. Good data organization enhances accessibility of crucial information both by the management and the customers. Consequently, less time is wasted while interacting with the products.
Appropriate Visual style and features
In a bid to ensure consistency in the quality of product delivery, the company ought to ensure the usability and readability of the documents. The nature of the products (games) offered by the company indicate that a client ought to easily understand the elements of the document as soon as they interact with it. It would therefore be important to consider the right visual styles which may include appropriate fonts, color, size, orientation, layout and space. The organization may as well incorporate the use of additional features like animations as well as headers and footers to give the customers the much needed guidance while using the products (William, 2014).
Age requirements
The Australian legislative policies are keen on protecting the minors from exposure to harmful products especially when the services are internet or technology based. In compliance with the age requirements, the Adept Owl Company, despite the need to serve all sorts of customers, may be required to consider age limits for the users. As such, the entertainment games, cards and puzzled can only be played by users who have attained a specific age. The company may therefore install software which requires the users to key in their ages before being allowed to proceed with the use products (Wolfe, 2009).
Content
In addition to compliance with the age requirements, the legal procedures also prohibit the deliberate exposure of the users to harmful content. In relation to this requirement, Adept Owl has consistently performed a review of its products in a bid to ensure that the contents of the documents and hence the products are in compliance with the laid down legislative procedures. This ensures that the customers’ use of the products leaves them entertained and satisfied without necessarily washing off their moral standards and need for sobriety.
Skill Gaps
The company’s desire is to improve on its product production, improve performance within the organization and hence encourage effective customer engagement. In order to achieve such, it would be crucial to point out some of the skill gaps in relation to information technology which in one way or the other could be hindering performance within the organization.
To begin with, most of the processes especially in the preliminary sections of document design are still being done manually and by individuals. As deduced from the company’s scenario, letters are being created by individuals which in turn lead problems especially when it comes to the issue of mass mail outs a process which lowers efficiency levels. Manual operations and individual preparations of documents as opposed to the use of machines and software slow down the production process within the organization. This is because processes aided by human capabilities tend to be slower and less efficient as compared to computerized standard procedures.
The other area in which there exists a notable skill gap when it comes to the use of IT in documentation is the aspect of expense reporting. The case study notes that the company currently lacks standard procedures, templates and processes in designing expense templates. There is a range of methods which are currently being used by the staff members but are considerably less effective. The company reports reveal that the staff members are complaining about the methodologies laid down by the company to aid in expense reporting. According to the workers, the processes are time consuming since a lot of time is required when inputting the expenses. Consequently, the final data is laced with a various inconsistencies which may include incomplete or incorrect coding of expenses.
From the administrative team capability template, it can be derived that most members of staff are only conversant with creating and using templates in word or excel format. Pat and Kim seem to have adequate skills in this area while Sam is completely non-conversant with this skill area. At the same time, the administration team is only averagely knowledgeable when it comes to creating macros using excel and word. There is only one member in the administration who can create and use mail merge features in word but can only do this with supervision. Additionally, there is a clear lack of adequate experience in various other areas within the administrative duties which need to be addressed. For instance, creating and using form fields in word, creating and using drop down lists in excel and creating and using formulas in excel. As indicated in each of Adept Owl’s administrative tasks, there is no single area in which the staff can operate effectively without supervision which basically slows down documentation processes within the organization.
Measures on Closing the Skill gaps
The main step that Adept Owl could take to close the performance gaps in the organization’s bid to improve performance would be to conduct extensive staff training and exposure. Details of analysis of the administrative team capabilities indicate a clear lack of training of the staff members in various areas. The trainings could be conducted on specific areas for instance the use of word and excel which is one of the basic elements in document design and development. At the same time, the organization can work on specialization where an individual’s skills are sharpened and enhanced on specific areas in which they are well acquainted. For instance, Sam is good in creating and using mail merge features and also has enough experience in creating drop down lists and using formulas in excel. The organization can therefore choose to enhance him on this specific area. Pat who is good in creating and using templates in excel and word formats could be trained to specialize in these specific areas. Specialization plays a crucial role in disseminating duties among the members of the administration. This does not only shorten the time taken to complete projects but also goes a long way in enhancing the quality of products due to improved efficiency.
Adept Owl’s Future IT needs
With respect to the skill gaps identified in the section above, there are a number of improvements which Adept Owl could factor in especially in line with IT in a bid to improve on performance. First of all, the organization might need to review its current style guide and procedures and hence come up with software which produces letter templates. This is because letters are currently produced from scratch and by individuals which takes quite a while with inconsistencies in quality. A letter template would therefore increase the speed of production in addition to ensuring an organized form of information entry. In a nut shell, a letter template would go a long way in minimizing production delays.
Secondly, as an IT need, organization needs to incorporate the use of standard templates accompanied by processes which would make the process of expense reporting easy and manageable. As per the current situation, there lacks specific procedures meant to govern the process of expense reporting especially when inputting the expenses. With no standard template, workers seem to have difficulties in finding the right arrangement of elements within the document. Since each of these tasks border around the use of word and excel in the creation of templates, Adept Owl Company may need to develop and install more efficient and update software which would make the use of word and excel easy. Such a procedure may involve incorporating more advanced software on which both the word and excel programs can run with minimal hindrances. For instance, a faster program would increase the rate of production of the procedural templates. This would in turn reduce the time take to create the letters meant for use as internal and external memos. This evaluation has been solely guided by a thorough analysis of the Adept Owl scenario in addition to review of relevant documents and resources on document development and design.
Changes on Adept Owl’s Style guide
In order to take care of the anticipated technological changes, there is an inevitable need for Adept Owl to make alterations on the current style guide. Since the anticipated changes would involve the production of a template, there is need to ensure the documents have a general standard view which is not only interactive but also user friendly. The changes made would involve improving the visual styles and features to fit the standards of a template. Secondly, the organization may as well change the layout of its current document design to a standard view which would be universal for use despite the kind of audience for which the letter is meant.
A letter template or any other standard template requires specific page elements. As a result, the organization will be required to review its font choice, color selection as well as shading. Each of these adjustments is meant to fit the standard requirements of a template. Consequently, the organization may have to record additional procedures in its style guide while eliminating the more manual approaches as this would go a long way in enhancing the quality of products.
Based on the nature of the organization’s guide, a number of documents can be identified as those used by the company. To begin with, the company currently uses letters meant for both internal and external communication with workers and clients alike. The letters are manually designed hence the need for templates to enhance efficiency. Secondly, the organization also uses expense reports as a document to record its financial and expense activities. This is another document that requires a standard template. Thirdly, Adept Owl uses a number of electronic documents which include emails, markups and written feedbacks especially with regard to the nature of products offered by the organization to its clients. In addition to the documents identified above, the organization may need to come up with several other templates for instance letter templates as well as standard templates to aid in the completion of expense reports. Finally, from the administration team capabilities, it can also be deduced that the organization uses other documents in macro forms, drop down lists as well as form fields mostly created using word and excel programs.
Procedure for a mass letter Mail –out
The process is basically found in Microsoft word and has been simplified over time.
Step (i)
Open or create a Main document in Microsoft word. A good example of a main document can be a form letter which is meant for delivery to many recipients like 100 people.
Step (ii)
Create a source of data; this ought to have individual recipient information.
A data source can be described as the file which contains the information which ought to be merged with the main document. This may include the names and addresses of the individuals. Examples of data source files include; a word table, an access table, a text delimited file or an excel spreadsheet.
Step (iii)
Customize merge fields in the main document.
The placeholders put into the main documents are called the merge fields. The program uses this to identify where to put the correlation elements as obtained from the source of data. For instance a field for instance <<SecondName>> would key in the individual’s second name from a data source record.
Step (iv)
Put together the data from the source into the document in order to create a new merged document
Putting the data source together with the main document creates a merged document.
Summary of Considerations
While performing the mass letter mail out procedure, the following considerations ought to be factored in;
Draft Letter Template
[Pick the date]
[Company Name]
[Company Address]
[Recipient Name]
[Recipient Address]
[Salutation]
Insert the main contents. Include details based on the style guide. Consider the font, color, document size and shading standards
[Closing]
[Sender Title]
[Company Name]
Final Letter Template
Final Letter Template
[Pick the date]
[Company Name]
[Company Address]
[Recipient Name]
[Recipient Address]
[Salutation]
Insert the main contents. Include details based on the style guide. Consider the font, color, document size and shading standards
[Closing]
[Sender Title]
[Company Name]
Testing Schedule
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Sr. |
Requirements |
Component |
Description |
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1 |
Introduction |
Test strategy and Approach |
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Scope of test |
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Assumptions |
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2 |
Static testing |
Defects discovered and corrected |
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Ideas on improvement |
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Compliance with programs |
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Language |
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Standards on Document Development |
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3 |
Dynamic testing |
Input test data |
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Original conditions |
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Projected results |
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Status of test log |
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4 |
Environment requirements |
Test strategy and approach |
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Libraries |
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Tools and |
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Procedures on testing |
The letter and expense report templates are interactive and make the processes much easier. The templates replace the manual and personalized processes like letter preparation and expense entry with a faster approach where the main elements are simply inserted based on the guidance of the template.
Adept Owl’s style guide which involves visual elements like fonts, color and shading were adequately factored in. The production of the document was done with the main aim of reducing complexity in the organization’s documentation processes. The process was completed within the given timeline. After running the test schedule, the usability of the product was ascertained.
#The expense report template was done in excel and shall therefore be uploaded as a separate document#
Explanatory Notes.
Based on an analysis of the administrative team capability, the member of the team who would be recommended for training is Sam.
The letter template has been designed to minimize the production delays associated with individuals producing letters from scratch. The template is simple and easily readable. It comprises the following input points
|
Time |
Item |
Resources |
Remarks |
|
2mins |
Introduction of the template’s core components. |
Template doc. |
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3mins |
Demonstrating the functions of the various components of the template |
Template doc |
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3mins |
Practice Questions and feedback on learning |
Template Doc on Microsoft word. |
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2 mins |
Conclusion and recording of the learner’s practical session |
Template Doc n Microsoft word. Camcorder |
From the administrative team capability template, it can be derived that most members of staff are only conversant with creating and using templates in word or excel format. Pat and Kim seem to have adequate skills in this area while Sam is completely non-conversant with this skill area. At the same time, the administration team is only averagely knowledgeable when it comes to creating macros using excel and word. There is only one member in the administration who can create and use mail merge features in word but can only do this with supervision. Additionally, there is a clear lack of adequate experience in various other areas within the administrative duties which need to be addressed. As indicated in each of Adept Owl’s administrative tasks, there is no single area in which the staff can operate effectively without supervision which basically slows down documentation processes within the organization.
References
Carolyne, R. (2010) Technical Editing. New York: Prentice Hall
Koschmann, M. A. (2012). Developing a communictive theory of the nonprofit. Management
Communication Quarterly, 26, 139-146.
William, R. (2014) The Non-Designer’s Design Book. US: Pearson Education
Wolfe, J. (2009). Team Writing: A Guide to Working in Groups. United States: Bedford Books.
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