Five Industry Best Practices to Improve Your Proposals and Technical Documents

Jun 1, 11 • proposal writing, technical writing • No Comments • Read More »

Every time I turn around, there is a new “industry best practices” model that every organization is trying to adopt. The funny thing is that they are very similar to one another. There is CMMI, ISO, Six Sigma, and the list keeps going.

If you don’t know, industry best practices are business processes that assist companies, government agencies, and non-profit organizations in maintaining the highest level of quality in the products or services that they are offering. A lot of it might seem like common sense, but if you saw some of the things that I have seen in the different projects I’ve been on, you’d realize that sometimes you can just rely on that.

Here are five industry best practices that you should adopt, regardless of the type of organization that you are running:

1. Have Processes That You Do Over and Over Again

Processes can be tedious, but they work. They say that it takes 21 days to form a habit. You can think of processes in that way. When you have a set of steps that you are constantly doing over-and-over again, then you will continue to do so without thinking. This makes things like writing a proposal or a technical document a breeze. You can also use it in other business areas as well. For instance, if you develop a process for following up with customers, then the more times you follow it, the easier it will get to not forget to do so.

2. Document the Processes You Come Up With

At one of my daughter’s girl scout meetings, the girls learned how gossip happens. You know that game, “Heard it Through the Grapevine.” You can continue whispering what you think you heard, and at the end, it is completely different than what was said initially. This is why you have to document these processes. One person might hear this, and another might hear that. You don’t want any confusion to happen, so just put it down in writing.

3. Consistency is Key

I know it can be a pain, but you have to be consistent. You have to stick with the steps that you came up with. There are times that you might think, “Well, it won’t hurt if I don’t do a peer review.” Believe me, compare the two documents (one you followed the process and the one you didn’t), and you will see a difference. It might be minor, but you will see it. Even if you REALLY don’t want to deal with the entire process, do it.

4. Get All Involved Parties on Board

When are you creating these processes, make sure that everyone who is going to be following them will be part of the change. The worst is when upper management decides to follow a certain set of steps, and then they go, “Oh, by the way, all of you are going to have to follow them.” Say what? Yes, you might be the boss, but you are not the one who is going to be actually implementing anything. Therefore, get the people involved. This is the only time that I will say that “If you build it, they won’t come.”

5. Review, Review, Review!

Always review your processes. There is always room for improvement, and you might have noticed that there are things that aren’t working. Don’t just keep following the steps if they are broken. Fix it! People hate change, but change is sometimes good. Try to review them periodically, so that you can improve your processes. Quality is always worth it.

I know that I missed some, but these are the most important ones. Which do you think should also be followed?