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In our regulated medical device environment, we use Complaints and CAPAs
(Corrective And Preventive Actions). We track documentation (AKA
labeling) issues the same way we track engineering issues. When the
corrected documentation is released, the Complaint and/or CAPA can be
closed.
That having been said, there are *many* changes whose source is the
documentation review itself, and not any Complaint or CAPA. In those
cases, no tracking is necessary, since the problem and solution are
simultaneous and collocated.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Julie Stickler
> Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2009 11:48 AM
> To: Technical Writing
> Subject: Bug tracking and documentation
>
> I'm a software technical writer, and every software company
> I've worked for has had some sort of issue/bug tracking
> system in place.
> And they've all used the same issue tracking system that they
> use for software bugs to log documentation issues. Today I'm
> trying to write up how I'd like the process to work at my current job.
>
> The system works well when the issues logged are things that
> are clearly "right" or "wrong" like incorrect procedures,
> incorrect code examples, missing steps or procedures, etc.
>
> Where the system breaks down is when someone enters issues
> like "Guide X needs to be completely rewritten." Or someone
> enters pages of documentation reviews/comments as an "issue."
> Because our process requires QA to close issues, and our QA
> team really has no idea how to judge if this type of issue is
> "fixed." I end up force closing a lot of these, or listing
> them as "not a bug."
>
> So, I'd like to ask the group to share your collective
> wisdom. Does your company use an issue/bug tracking system?
> Do you use it to track documentation issues? Does your
> system work well, or not, and why?
>
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