4.7. Other types of technical documents/reports

1. Organisational policies and procedures. These are the operating documents for organisations; they contain rules and regulations on how the organisation and its members are expected to perform. Policies and proce­dures are similar to instructions.

Organisations use policies and procedures documents to record their rules and regulations. These can include whatever the organisation considers important for its operations: attendance policies, substance-abuse policies, work-flow procedures, and so on. Once recorded, the policies and proce­dures are there for everybody in the organisation to refer to, and these documents become the means of settling most disputes within the organisa­tion. To distinguish between these two terms, policies are general statements of how an organisation wants things to be within its walls. For example, it may have a policy that dictates eager, aggressive, do-whatever-takes cus­tomer support. But to make that policy a working reality, it will also have one or more procedures that define exactly what to do - step by step - when a customer calls with a complaint or problem.

2. Technical background reports. This type focuses on a technical topic, provides a certain background on that topic for a specific set of read­ers who have specific needs for it. This report does not supply instructions, nor does it supply recommendations in any systematic way, nor does it re­port new and original data. The technical background report does not pro­vide step-by-step directions on how to do something the way that instruc­tions do. It provides information on a technical topic but in such a way that is adapted for a particular audience that has specific needs for that informa­tion. Imagine the audience was a group of engineers bidding on a contract to do part of the work for a dialysis clinic. They need to know about renal dis­ease and its therapy, but only to the extent that it has to do with their areas of expertise. Such a background report might also include some basic dis­cussion of renal disease and its treatment, but no more than what the engi­neers need to do their work and to interact with representatives of the clinic.

3. Technical specifications. This type presents descriptive and op­erational details on a new product. Specifications are descriptions of prod­ucts or product requirements. More broadly, they can provide details for the design, manufacture, testing, installation, and use of a product. You typi­cally see specifications in the documentation that comes in the package with certain kinds of products, for example, CD players or computers. These de­scribe the key technical characteristics of the item. But specifications are also written as a way of "specifying" the construction and operational char­acteristics of a thing. They are then used by people who actually construct the thing or go out and attempt to purchase it. When you write specifica­tions, accuracy, precision of detail, and clarity are critical.