Report on Document Production Processes in Project Management Context

This report provides a detailed analysis of document production processes, encompassing various stages from initial drafting to final distribution. It outlines the steps involved, including determining document content, proofreading, layout design, master copy creation, and distribution. The report includes a cost analysis of document production, detailing expenses for software, printing, and design. It also identifies software applications like MS Office, Adobe Creative Suite, CorelDraw, and Foxit Phantom PDF, highlighting their roles in document creation and management. Furthermore, the report examines relevant codes, standards, and legislation impacting document production, such as environmental protection, freedom of information, and privacy acts. It describes organizational procedures related to document production, emphasizing policies, standard formats, and document properties. The report concludes by listing sources of expertise, including document management consultancies and ISO standards, which are crucial for effective document management practices.

Running head: DIPLOMA IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT 1
Diploma in Project Management
Name:
Institution:

DIPLOMA IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT 2
Assignment 2
1. Document production processes
These include the following:
 Determining which items should appear on the documents and creating a draft to which some
comments can be added to by the team and incorporated for a more complete document
(Joslin & Müller, 2016). This is done by a word processor such as Microsoft Word or a
Spreadsheet such as Microsoft Excel if the documentation is of a financial nature and
requires calculations (Sánchez, 2015). The type of information to go into the documentation
will mainly be determined by the type of document. For example, a document to be used for
financial purposes will require different information from a document to be used for
information purposes in the organization.
 The draft created in the previous step is then proofread to eliminate all possible errors and
mistakes before a final draft is produced, this final draft is also checked for mistakes one
final time (Kerzner & Kerzner, 2017). When the draft is produced, it has to be checked to
ensure that it has captured all the required information; and that the information is captured
in a concise way. Proofreaders should check out for common pitfalls regarding documents;
the chief one being ambiguity of meaning conveyed by the information.
 The ready text is then laid out according to the demands of the final document and the layout
also reviewed again to ensure that it is perfect. It may be laid out in MS Word on in Adobe In
Design (in case of a publication) (Hosono & Shimomura, 2017). Document layout may be a
simple or complicated process which needs to be carefully considered. The designer of the
document has to approach the design from the perspective of the reader or customer of the

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document and see if it is suitable for the consumption of the user. For instance, does the
document layout present a neat arrangement, easy to use, where the reader can access the
required information easily?
 Master copies are then produced of the documentation which will be used to produce the
document in bulk in future (Nicholas & Steyn, 2017). It is important for organizations to
store their master copies in a secure way so that in case of future production, these can be
retrieved and used. With today’s technology, master copies can be stored in soft copies,
making it easy to retrieve and print these copies in future, or to adjust them to incorporate
recent changes and use them in future.
 Copies of the documentation are then produced based on the order or requirements
(Maříková et al., 2015). Organisations may choose to invest in expensive high technology
printers which may produce coloured or black outputs, or, if they do not produce a lot of
documentation, they may opt to outsource this function.
2. The table below represents the costs associated with the execution of ordinary
documentation:
Item Unit Cost No. of
units
Total
cost
Year 1
Purchase of MS Office suite (that will have MS
Word and MS Excel)
$48 1 $48
Purchase of CorelDraw Graphics Software $635 1 $635
Purchase of Foxit Phantom PDF Software $159 1 $159
Purchase of Adobe Creative suite for a variety of $1,299 1 $1,299

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tools to work on text and graphics.
Developing the design of the standard
documentation
$5 per page 30 $150
Printing costs of the documentation $ 0.1 per
page
2,100 $$210
Sub-total $2,501
Year 2
Printing costs of the documentation $ 0.1 per
page
2,400 $$240
$240
Year 3
Printing costs of the documentation $ 0.1 per
page
3,000 $$300
Sub-total $300
Grand Total $3,041
NB: the above prices are only indicative prices of the items listed, the real prices may mostly
be a bit lower than the cited prices. The prudent thing to do in budgeting is to quote a bit
higher in order to avoid funds shortages as is the case with conservative budgets.
3. Software applications associated with document policy.
The software applications that can be used here are:
 MS Office: for Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel, which are used to generate general
documents and financial documents respectively.

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 Adobe Creative Suite 6: for working on layout of complex documents, pictures and text.
It can also generate vector art i.e. graphics such as logos and maps, and edit pictures
(retouch, crop, lighten, etc) as per the organisation’s requirements.
 CorelDraw: for generating vector art: this is a main program for generating vector art as
is described above, and it has a utility for working on pictures, and yet another one for
tracing pictures or bitmaps and converting them into vector art.
 Foxit Phantom PDF: For converting documents to PDF format: foxit Phantom PDF is a
great program for converting single or multiple documents into single PFDs, for example,
the company may decide to store all its financial documentation in a single PDF from all
the files. The program also has a capability of recognizing text from images such as
scanned pages using its Optical Character Reader (OCR) utility and this is very useful for
capture of printed documents for reworking by the organization.
4. Codes and standards affecting document production in line with the applicable legislation.
 Environment Protection will guide the production and disposal of documents by the
organization; that it has to be done in an environmental-friendly way (Holtman & van
Zeeland, 2018). Since documents are produced in paper, the Environmental
Protection Law will be useful in providing guidelines on useful uses of paper e.g.
avoiding paper wastage, printing on both sides, etc. the law will also give guidelines
on the environmental-related aspects on the equipment to buy for processing the
documents e.g. for printers, they have to employ green technology and have
recyclable ink cartridges.
 Freedom of Information Act: This will guide the right of access of people to
information printed on the documentation (Talman, 2018). This law will set the

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obligations and guidelines regarding which types of information can be accessed by
the public, how they may access the information, and when (i.e. the period after the
production of the information) they can access the information.
 The Privacy Act: Which will restrict access to some information because of privacy
considerations (Le Roy & Fernandez, 2015). The Privacy Act outlines the types of
information that are considered to be confidential and are therefore not available to
the public. It also provides guidelines for how such information may be secured so
that it remains private.
5. Procedures connecting to document production in an organization.
In terms of policies: the following policies shall come into play: i.e. policies related to
purpose and scope, and those related to responsibility (Gong & Blijleven, 2017).
Responsibility for all documents produced will lie with the Managing Director and all these
documents should be duly dated.
The procedures capture the following:
 The standard format for all procedures: these procedures relate to the generation of
documents in the preparatory, pre-press, press and after publication phases. Guidelines
also show the use and disposal of documents.
 The standard format for all safety operating procedures: this set of procedures is related
to standard operating procedures based on safety considerations when generating the
documents. These procedures are targeted for use by the employees in the organization
who are directly work on the generation of the documents.

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 The properties of every document: this captures various items such as the date of
creation, size of the document in pages, the individual or departmental author of the
document and the date of production or revision of the document,

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6. List of sources that involve expertise of a workgroup.
These include the following:
 Document Management Consultancy which gives independent information management
services to organisations (Bibarsov, Khokholova & Okladnikova, 2017). This
consultancy provides expertise on all aspects of document management, right from
production, use, access and disposal. The organization adheres to international standards
when offering its consultancy services and this ensures that its clients undertake their
document management processes according to the international standards.
 Clayko Group which offers cost-effective document management systems that can be
standard or tailor made (Uhl, & Gollenia, 2016). Clayko has standard or tailored software
based document management solutions that are good for big enterprises or enterprises
that deal with a lot of documentation. Such enterprises, through working with Clayko’s
solutions, can greatly reduce loss in document management processes while
simultaneously greatly optimizing on their available documents and this leads in an
upsurge in the productivity of the organization.
 ISO Document Management Standards: That set up the standards regarding document
management procedures (Badewi, A., & Shehab, E. (2016). These are international
standards which offer the minimum acceptable standards governing all aspects of
document generation, use, handling, access and disposal. This are therefore crucial in
ensuring that the organization adheres to internationally set standards with regard to
document management.

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