The Document Control Tribune Issue16 Consepsys

Issue no.
16 – March 2018
Integrating
Document Control
as part of Project
Controls
How to Improve the

Recognition of the Document
Control Profession
THE DOCUMENT CONTROL TRIBUNE Issue no.16
Inside this issue: Editorial
This first issue of the Document Control

How to improve the recognition of the Docu- Page 4 & Tribune for 2018 focuses on a very com-
ment Control profession 5 mon hurdle encountered by Document
Control professionals: the lack of recog-
nition of our profession.
That lack of recognition is often per-

Lifelong learning: a method to improve oppor- Page 6 ceived as unfair and wrongful by Docu-
tunities
ment Controllers.
But don’t ask us to resign ourselves to

accepting that as an inevitability.
Comic Strip Series: “Hanging in There” with Page 7
In this issue, we explore the different
D.Ceecee, the Document Controller
ways that we can use to fight back and
to improve the recognition of our profes-
sion.
The truth is that there is a lot that Docu-

Integrating Document Control as part of Pro- Page 8 ment Controllers can do by themselves,
ject Controls without even waiting for their inferfaces
to realise how important Document Con-
trol is and how useful it can be.
Portrait of a Document Controller: Page 10 We hope that this issue will inspire you
Tori Pehkonen to continue promoting the profession
Document Control Team Lead at Canadian around you and to be the best version of
Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) in Chalk River, your professional self!
Ontario, Canada As for all the past years, you can count
10 tips to improve career development Page 11 on us in 2018 to continue gathering and
disseminating best practices around the
world and to continue promoting the pro-
fession, in every possible way, every
day.
Document Control Training Courses Page 12
Page 3 of 12
Consepsys Ltd are not and shall not be responsible for any statement made or opinions expressed in “The Document Control Tribune”. Unless described as such, statements and
opinions expressed in “The Document Control Tribune” do not represent the views or policies of Consepsys Ltd. Consepsys Ltd accept advertising for goods and services which, in the
publisher’s judgement, address the professional interests of its readers. Consepsys Ltd reserve the right to refuse any advertising and articles which they consider to be unacceptable.
HOW TO IMPROVE THE RECOGNITION OF THE

DOCUMENT CONTROL PROFESSION?
It is unfortunately a finding that many Document Control pro- # Formally learn about the Document Control disci-
fessionals have come to make: our discipline is not well pline
known and understood.
Many Document Controllers have learnt the discipline “on-
This leads to countless misunderstandings and misinterpre- the-job” and there is nothing wrong with that. But the on-
tations of what the profession is about, what the role is about the-job learning has flaws that only a theoretical under-
and what its focus should be. standing of the discipline can fix: attending a formal pro-
fessional course in Document Control will give the un-
But most importantly, this lack of understanding leads to a
derstanding of what are the best practices (and on the
lack of recognition of the profession as a discipline that one
contrary what are the unsafe, unrecommended practices),
should learn properly, as a role that one can take pride in
what the focus and core of Document Control are, and
being part of, and as a career that can offer many interesting
most importantly will ensure that you can perform the role
opportunities.
in a different company or environment than the one you
Lack of recognition leads to many consequences for Docu- started in.
ment Control professionals.
# Promote the discipline daily (and relentlessly)
Lack of recognition — consequences on recruitment
Do not make the mistake to think that if you do your job
Some managers do still think that Document Control is an well, people will naturally notice and will automatically see
easy job, and that almost anyone could do it. It leads to re- the value that DC has. It is actually part of your role to
cruiting people with no prior knowledge or experience of the promote DC: explain what is DC, what the role consists of,
profession. This often comes with another side problem: it is why is it so important, how it helps people to be efficient
that once in the position, the newly appointed Document and safe, how it protects everyone’s job by protecting the
Controller sometimes gets little to no on-the-job training. company’s interests.
Even if many DCs have managed to transform that chal- Promoting DC is not something you do one day and that’s
lenge into a success, we can surely agree that this is a less- it. You have to continue doing it on a daily basis, take all
than-optimal way to enter the profession. the opportunities given to do it, and of course sometimes
Lack of recognition — consequences on role & tasks (most times actually), create your own opportunities to talk
about DC: why not for example organise a Lunch & Learn
A lack of recognition of competences can lead to giving to session to discuss the impacts of a lack of DC on compa-
Document Control professionals only half the tasks that they nies through actual examples of failure to comply?
should be doing, and sometimes on the opposite giving them The article continues on next page
tasks that are not Document Control tasks.
We have defined previously What Document Control is
and what the tasks of a Document Controller are: Docu-
ment Control is much more than just someone who files doc-
uments or does data entry all day long.
The role is much more varied and includes protecting the
company’s interests by keeping all legal evidence in case of
litigation, audit, investigation; as well as protecting the safety
of the company’s personnel and of the users by ensuring
that they only work with the latest approved and authorized
documentation.
So what can we do to improve recognition?
We can do a lot. But we need to start with putting our own
house in order:
Page 4 of 12
HOW TO IMPROVE THE RECOGNITION OF THE

DOCUMENT CONTROL PROFESSION?
… Continued from page 4 can add value. And if you are not sure about how to do
that, again the attendance to a good course will definitely
What else can we do to improve the recognisation of the help: the Consepsys Advanced Document Control
Document Control profession? Training course is entirely dedicated to adding value as a
Document Controller.
# Add value and show what real good DC can do
# Build trust and credibility
There is a common misperception from stakeholders who
sometimes see Document Control as filing clerks or data Document Control professionals must be conscious of the
entry operators. But real Document Control is much more fact that if their users (e.g. managers, engineers, technical
and people can be amazed at what a good DC can do. interfaces, etc) do not trust them, then their daily interfaces
will be difficult and the tasks given to them might be re-
Let’s take a couple of examples here: stricted to a minimum.
• What about the real good DC who can find in less than How to built trust? By building your credibility. But how
2 minutes the piece of evidence that will save the com- does one build their own credibility?
pany from a costly litigation
• By demonstrating expertise: know what you are talking
• And what about the real good DC who can provide in about, endorse the expert role, provide innovative solu-
real time a dashboard on the progress of the documen- tions
tation to their manager, giving them real-time and accu-
rate information on the progress of the project? • By demonstrating integrity, upholding the Consepsys
TICCQS values, and being the trusted gatekeeper of
• And let’s not forget about the real good DC who avoids the rules
a safety accident on site by gatekeeping and avoiding
the access to uncontrolled and unchecked information? • By delivering on time and with high quality
Do you think that the interfaces of that real good Docu- • Through a transparent communication regarding suc-
ment Control professional will still think that he / she is just cesses but also improvements and lessons learnt
a data entry operator? No, they won’t. But of course, only if Improving recognition starts with us
we also promote the value of DC on a daily basis as seen
in our previous point. Recognition will not come on its own, it is up to us, Docu-
ment Control professionals, to show and demonstrate on a
So it’s all about adding value, being proactive instead of daily basis what real Document Control means and the
reactive, and keeping a constant communication with inter- value that we provide.
faces in order to understand what they need and how we
Page 5 of 12
Consepsys Ltd are not and shall not be responsible for any statement made or opinions expressed in “The Document Control Tribune”. Unless described as such,
statements and opinions expressed in “The Document Control Tribune” do not represent the views or policies of Consepsys Ltd. Consepsys Ltd accept advertising
for goods and services which, in the publisher’s judgement, address the professional interests of its readers. Consepsys Ltd reserve the right to refuse any advertis-
LIFELONG LEARNING:
A METHOD TO IMPROVE OPPORTUNITIES
I
s learning only something we do Do not assume that you already and to learn new skills. It is done
between childhood and the early know everything there is to know through formal professional courses
20s? and through “informal” learning for
Sometimes people think: I do not need
example through daily interactions and
Should we consider that once we to learn more that, because I am al-
exposure, and in general through the
are professionals and we fulfil a role ready doing it on a daily basis.
understanding that when you miss an
on a daily basis, then we do not ever
That is another common mistake to opportunity to learn it sometimes does
need to go back to class?
avoid: how do you know if what you do not come by again.
It would probably be a mistake to think on a daily basis is the best practice?
What are the benefits of lifelong
so. Actually learning throughout one’s And the most efficient way to do a
learning?
life improves not only on the personal task? When you come to a course or
development side but also helps gen- attend a class on a subject that you There are lots of benefits; for example:
erate better opportunities for oneself think you know, you are most times
• Improve skills to remain on top
and increases competitiveness and surprised by the things you learn and
of your game, especially in a rap-
employability. sometimes discover.
idly changing world
Never stop learning Assuming that you know already eve-
rything there is to know on a subject • Improve employability: be con-
When you stop learning once you land scious that in this day and age
means a missed opportunity to learn
a job, you are bound to remain in a people will on average change
and grow. And to ensure your long-
self-fuelled environment, repeating the jobs between 5 and 15 times dur-
term employability.
same tasks in the same way and most ing their career
times not benchmarking yourself So what is lifelong learning?
against others in the same profession. • Transferability of skills: Make
It is defined as the “ongoing, voluntary sure that you will still be able to
That becomes a problem especially and self-motivated” pursuit of be a good DC in another compa-
when you need to find a new job as knowledge. ny, environment, department or
you will be competing for the same industry
It is about understanding that we are
role as other Document Control pro-
no longer in a world where you learn
fessionals who may have been taking • Purpose, pride and satisfac-
in school when you are young, and
all opportunities to learn along the way tion: DC is a role in which one
then apply what you learnt in the pro-
and therefore may be more attractive can take pride. Lifelong learning
fessional environment. It is about tak-
for future employers. will fuel that pride and will im-
ing all possible opportunities to learn
prove job satisfaction.
more, to acquire in-depth knowledge,
Page 6 of 12
Sponsored by
“Hanging in there” with D. Ceecee - the Document Controller by Tuffmee

Copyright © Consepsys Limited
Credits
Follow D. Ceecee on and on Graphical concept: Myranda Saffarine
Scenario & Design: Tuffmee & Nwash
Page 7 of 12
INTEGRATING DOCUMENT CONTROL

AS PART OF PROJECT CONTROLS
W
hen working on pro- to know as soon as possible. check information. This helps iden-
jects, Document Con- tify gaps and potential issues
How Document Control can help
trol is one of the roles
control the project? • By sitting down as early as possi-
that help control the
ble with the Planner, in order to
project and help moni- • By issuing regular reports to the
integrate the provisional dates for
tor its progress. Project Management & Project
documentation delivery in our DC
Controls team, showing the pro-
It is therefore an essential function to system. This helps then to meas-
gress of the documentation
the Project Management team, provid- ure where we are compared to
ing them with the key performance • By keeping an up-to-date and ac- where we were supposed to be.
indicators of the documentation. curate Document Control dash-
• By ensuring that the Project Man-
What are Project Controls? board that displays the status of
ager understands the Document
the documentation key perfor-
Project Controls can be defined as the Control team’s capabilities and
group of disciplines that plan, measure how
and monitor the project. we
can
It is about monitoring the difference or
gap between the planned variables
and the actual performance. An exam-
ple, from the Cost Control area: We
were planning expenditures of
125,000$ this month, but we actually
spent 250,000$: what happened
there? Does that come from an over-
spend or is it just expenditures
planned for another month that came
in early (or late)? Is there any correc-
tive actions to take?
How does Document Control fit into
Project Controls?
support him/her along the way.
Document Control, when properly im- mance indicators.
plemented and executed, is one of the • By discussing with project team
• By issuing, at least on a weekly
key roles to help measure the perfor- their reporting needs as well as
basis, a report on late docu-
mance of a project and its progress. defining thresholds for red-flagging
ments / late comments to the pro-
during the project
Indeed, the progress of most major ject team, so that they can take
projects is monitored through the pro- immediate action • By ensuring that project users re-
vision of the agreed documentation ceive an induction to the Docu-
• By keeping lines of communica-
deliverables. ment Control essentials at the start
tion open between Client Docu-
To take a simplified example, if we of the project, and that they know
ment Control team and Contractor
were supposed to deliver 10 docu- who to ask questions if they have
(s)/Supplier(s) Document Control
ments during the design phase of a any
teams so that we can identify and
project and we have delivered 5, then fix easily any potential issue that • Finally, by ensuring that the mech-
the progress is 50%. may arise regarding documentation anism for spotting and correct-
And if we were supposed to send ing non-conformities is in place.
• By issuing, at least on a weekly
those 10 documents by a certain date, basis, the latest updated MDR
and this delivery is overdue, this is (Master Deliverable Register) to
something the Project Manager needs the Client and asking them to cross
Page 8 of 12
PORTRAIT OF A DOCUMENT CONTROLLER
Tori Pehkonen
Document Control Team Lead at Canadian
Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) in Chalk River,
Ontario, Canada
Tori attended both the Consepsys Certified

Document Controller and Certified Lead
Document Controller in Houston in 2016
controller at CNL in January was greatly beneficial to have formal-

2012, and became the Team ized education to back it up. It was
Lead in 2016. wonderful to network with other docu-
ment controllers from across the US
who could relate to the unique daily
Can you tell us a bit about you?
Which Consepsys course did you challenges faced in this profession.
My name is Tori Pehkonen. I am 30 attend and when?
The Lead Document Controller course
years old, married, and a mother of
I attended two courses back-to-back in helped to prepare me for my new lead-
two young daughters. I was born and
Houston, Texas in December 2016: ership role. The hands-on and inti-
raised in the Ottawa Valley in Ontario,
“Certified Document Controller” and mate setting contributed to an environ-
Canada. I attended Lakehead Univer-
“Certified Lead Document Controller”. ment of sharing, which in turn fostered
sity in Thunder Bay, and graduated
an atmosphere of troubleshooting and
with an HBA in Sociology. On the
weekends, I enjoy spending time in my
kitchen cooking/baking, and playing “The hands-on setting contributed to an environment
competitive volleyball in our local co- of sharing, which in turn fostered an atmosphere of
ed league. troubleshooting and guidance from the instructors and
What is your current role? more experienced Lead Document Controllers who
attended the course”
I am the Team Lead of 12 document
control staff at Canadian Nuclear La-
boratories (CNL) in Chalk River, Ontar- What did you think about the
guidance from the instructors and
io, Canada. Currently, I am assisting course? How did it help you in your
more experienced Lead Document
with revising our control of information current role and career develop-
Controllers who attended the course.
procedure, and preparing for the tran- ment?
Not only was I introduced to valuable
sition/migration to our new EDMRS, I was thoroughly impressed with both formulas and methods used to plan
Content Suite by OpenText. courses! document control work and budgets,
Can you describe your professional The Document Controller course pro- the informal discussions I participated
experience? vided me with concrete assurance of in with those present became the high-
the best practices we were currently light of my experience.
As a university student, I worked three
summers in the Records/IM Depart- upholding at CNL, and also helped me
ment at Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. to identify areas that we could improve If you attended one of our courses and
(now Canadian Nuclear Laboratories). in. would like to apply to be featured in
As I was enrolled in schooling unrelat- one of our upcoming issues, drop us
As all of my document control exper- an email at:
ed to this field, it was my first exposure tise had been accumulated on the job,
to records and information manage- dctribune@consepsys.com
and in the context of one company, it
ment. I began as a full time document
Page 10 of 12
10 TIPS TO IMPROVE CAREER DEVELOPMENT

1. Start by determining what you velopment plan. good return on investment? Is there
want to achieve. Without a goal any other internal program that can
5. Participate in or lead challenging
clearly defined and stated, it will be help you achieve your goals, such as
projects in your company: use
difficult to reach anything. mentoring or placement?
your expert knowledge to propose
2. Once the goal is determined, it is not innovative solutions to a current 8. Benchmark against other profes-
yet time for action, but time for plan- problem that the company faces. sionals in the same discipline: who
ning. The questions you need to Then drive the solution to comple- else is out there? What are their
answer now are: how can you make tion. This is very effective to raise skills, experience, knowledge? How
sure that you will eventually reach one’s profile. do you up your game to be the first
that goal and what is your strategy to in line when there is a job opening?
6. Consider your work-life as a ca-
reach that objective A great way to do that is to attend
reer instead of a succession of jobs.
Document Control courses and
3. Brainstorm about the different This will maximise your opportunities
events.
ways to reach your goal. There is as it will give you the overview of
also more than just one way to get where you are, where you want to be 9. Update your knowledge: always
where you want to be. If you think and how you can ensure that you get make sure that you have an up-to-
about all options. it will allow you to where you want to be. date understanding of your profes-
have a back-up plan in case plan A sion and its challenges
7. Explore areas for development in
does not unfold as expected.
your company: would they be ready 10. Develop your soft skills: those skills
4. When the forum is right, proactively to sponsor the course you need to that allow you to successfully inter-
discuss your career goals with your attend, if you convince them with a face, communicate and convince.
manager and create a career de- clear plan (defined in step 2) and a
Page 11 of 12
The Document Control Tribune

Issue no. 16 - March 2018
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Issue no.

How to Improve the

Inside this issue: Editorial

This first issue of the Document Control

That lack of recognition is often per-

But don’t ask us to resign ourselves to

The truth is that there is a lot that Docu-

HOW TO IMPROVE THE RECOGNITION OF THE

HOW TO IMPROVE THE RECOGNITION OF THE

“Hanging in there” with D. Ceecee - the Document Controller by Tuffmee

Scenario & Design: Tuffmee & Nwash

INTEGRATING DOCUMENT CONTROL

PORTRAIT OF A DOCUMENT CONTROLLER

Tori attended both the Consepsys Certified

controller at CNL in January was greatly beneficial to have formal-

10 TIPS TO IMPROVE CAREER DEVELOPMENT

The Document Control Tribune

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