Claudia

It is a challenge to deal with project management ... let alone engineers.
However project documentation can be managed effectively, if you are willing
to expend considerable effort.

Whether you are dealing with software application development projects; oil
exploration projects; engineering projects; manufacturing development
projects,; etc.  you can still employ standards.reakdown 

The most generic come from the Project Management Institute and their PMBOK
standards guidelines.  Other groups (at least in Canada) are associations
for professional engineers and geoscientists.   I am familiar with APEGA and
APEGBC.  APEGBC has a guideline on project documentation that is easily
googled.

PMI identifies 5 basic phases for projects and lists basic documentation
that could be found at each phase.

Documentation Standards
Step 1 would be to study how project governance works in your organization;
who can open or close projects etc..  Look for standards of naming and
identification of projects.
Step 2 would be identifying the business group that you wish to assist in
regulating and managing their project documentation
Sit as many project managers as you can get in a room and review the PMBOK
breakdown of documentation ... as a STARTING point.  Let them define what
can be stored at what phase.
Create a one page laminated listing of what documents belong where and
encourage it's use.  Generate template folder structures that can be used on
a server.

Retention Standards
I agree with previous posters that some project documentation may be needed
for long periods of time.    Professional Engineers in Canada have suggested
a MINIMUM of 10 years and that fits with a number of Limitation Acts that I
have seen.  However different types of projects may have different trigger
dates and differing retentions.  Don't be afraid of 50 or 60 year
retentions.  Work out the most cost effective storage for long term and make
sure that the managers making the decision to keep things forever are aware
of the costs of their decision.

Regards
Jim

Jim Connelly, CRM
Connelly Consulting
8 Oakdale Place
St. Albert, AB
T8N 6K6
Cell: 780-499-7200
Office: 780-460-7089


Some Basic Notes on Project Documentation

Objective:
To determine a uniform approach to managing project documentation
.Consideration being given to PMBOK Standards

Naming of Projects -  Project Title? Year?, Tracking #?

Grouping of Projects -By Business Unit?; Simple Alpha - A-D; E-H;I-l; etc;
By type e.g. Development; Upgrade or COTS?  By Status - Proposed; Active
Completed, Deferred, Cancelled?

Impact of project governance & controls - Opening, Tracking, Reporting,
Closure - Deferring of projects

Documentation listing for phases
Using established PMI standards e.g. Initiating, planning, executing,
monitoring and controlling, and closing.  

Initiating
         includes business requirements definition, project charters,
project scope.

Planning 
         includes scope definition, schedule development, specifications,
activity definition and sequencing, costing , budgeting, communications
planning, risk identification, risk response planning, defining deliverables

Executing
          includes assembling a project team, design, construction,
implementation, testing

Monitoring and controlling
           includes schedule management, timing, cost tracking, quality
control management.

Closing 
includes project closure, assessment of deliverables, transition to an
active environment


When a project is complete, digital documents and folders may be moved to
the "completed projects" folder.  

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