Document Naming conventions and storage in ITIL

[willem]

Itil knows a number of different components like Services, processes, procedures, workinstructions. For each component a lot of documents can be created. To be able to recognise the nature of a document I suppose a good naming convention is advised. Also I suppose that same kind of documents is best stored in the same folder. But what is a good naming convention and how are documents best stored ?

[Diarmid]

willem,

to get to where you want to be I wouldn't start where you are now

It is not likely to be a good strategy to consider a document management system for ITIL. It is probably better to maintain an integrated document management system for your whole management system.

If your present system is not adequate, then, yes, you will have to enhance or redesign it, but don't do that exclusively for "ITIL documents" or you will be creating a silo. In fact don't think of anything as an "ITIL document". doing so rather suggests that you are trying to follow ITIL rules and will compromise the quality of your management system.

From this perspective, your question on naming conventions and storage (I presume you mean filing system) cannot usefully be answered except by reference to the particular circumstances of your environment.
_________________
"Method goes far to prevent trouble in business: for it makes the task easy, hinders confusion, saves abundance of time, and instructs those that have business depending, both what to do and what to hope."
William Penn 1644-1718

[willem]

Hello Diarmid,

Thank you for the answer but maybe I was not clear enough.
It is not my purpose to set up a new documenting system but only keeping together documents (processes, procedures, workinstructions) related to ITIL for one team (Storage team). If not using a naming convention, how do you know a document is Incident or Change or Capacity related or whether it is a process, procedure or workinstruction ?

Regards, Willem.

[Diarmid]

willem,

I don't really understand. Why would a team want to keep its documents separate from the rest? A large proportion of the documents you will use are unlikely to be exclusive to your team.

The best way to know what a document is is [I've always wanted to do that] from its title.

I would also be concerned about a document repository "related to ITIL". It could be a struggle if folk are thinking that some things are ITIL things and others are something else. You go to ITIL for guidance, but what you do is your job, not ITIL.
_________________
"Method goes far to prevent trouble in business: for it makes the task easy, hinders confusion, saves abundance of time, and instructs those that have business depending, both what to do and what to hope."
William Penn 1644-1718

[Dobbinuk]

I stumbled across this post while searching for advice on the same subject so hope I am not hijacking...

Like Willem, I would like to understand if there is any best practice regarding document naming conventions.

The repository, in which the documents are stored, relate to Incident Management aspects. There are many processes contained, which provide guidance for communications, incident management, paging process, record update process but this names only a few.

The document titles are fairly unstructured right now, which does not aid easy identification of each document. I would like to introduce a reference number to the front of document titles and would appreciate advice on this.

I do appreciate that identification of elements to be included in a reference number is for our organisation to understand but thought I'd ask what identifiers work well for people, if anyone uses them.

So how do people structure their reference number/titles and is there any best practice?

[Diarmid]

Well, yes there can be good practice with regards to documents, but it is very generic.

It is good practice to have a naming convention
It is good practice to have an index
It is good practice to identify authority/ownership
It is good practice to maintain document change records
It is good practice to to define the scope of a document (including time limits for its validity)
It is good practice to have an individual responsible for your document management system
It is good practice to have periodic formal document review
It is good practice to have periodic audits of your document management system

This is not exhaustive [but I'm exhausted ], but it probably covers most of the bases. Reading the ISO20000 and the ISO9000 standards can give some clues as to appropriate controls. There is also a document management ISO standard that could be very helpful (sorry I cannot recollect its number right off).

To look at the way other organizations have approached the subject, may well give you some ideas, but, without understanding why it works for them (if, indeed, you can verify that it does) and how they differ from you, it can also lead you down a wrong path, by being overly complex, over simple, over detailed or poorly focussed for your circumstances. If you do look at other examples, at least have a written statement and a good understanding of your requirements before doing so.
_________________
"Method goes far to prevent trouble in business: for it makes the task easy, hinders confusion, saves abundance of time, and instructs those that have business depending, both what to do and what to hope."
William Penn 1644-1718