The creation and production of documents in any large project takes a great deal of time, effort, and, ultimately, money. In the rest of this chapter, we examine project standards, configuration management, collaborative work, and document imaging. Each of these topics relates in various ways to the process, organization, and system issues outlined above. Project standards form a bridge between the elements that make up a document and the capabilities of a publishing system. Project standards can also help clarify the publishing process.
Configuration management defines the process used to create, maintain, and manage the documents.
In addition, configuration management works within the bounds of the functional responsibilities of the people on the project. Collaborative work is the application of new technologies that help to integrate the work process of many people in a controlled manner. Finally, document imaging is a technological systemsoriented solution to problems with the management of existing document archives. Document imaging can help improve the management, use, and accessibility of these archives. 1 Project Standards Establishing and using a set of project standards are the simplest things you can do to do improve the efficiency and quality of a project.