system is to procedure as task is to

In a tree of tasks, a task can call this function to set a return value. Not only this, before the plane is allowed to fly with this software, the manufacture has to be able to prove, to a very strict standard, that the auto pilot software is capable of doing this. But on the other hand I think tasks are more diverse, depending on the level of experience of the target group. I am missing some nuance here. I am an aspiring novelist and former technical writer and content strategist. Manipulating the machine is never the users goal in itself. A type is a promise, and is defined by the things it promises. The basic problem is that DITA uses what it calls topics as both its only unit of information design, and as its only unit of reuse. Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. They may require human intervention in which a surgeon may employ procedures to effect a repair. The key is that the steps follow a sequence. The most commonly used task topic type today is that implemented by DITA, in which a task topic is essentially a procedure. The way we use the words procedure and process tells us something about how they differ. We tend to start and stop processes. You see, the less details you have to provide, based on the experience of the reader, the farther you get from a task being a procedure. If documented procedures merely respond to requirements in a standard they are not likely to demonstrate a clear line of sight to the real purpose of why the procedure is necessary. Call the family to dinner. At the heart of the business excellence model there is a strong beat generated by the emphasis on process management. Your example of the procedure for an extreme novice is also interesting because it illustrates that you really cant write for the extreme novice at all. Reuse can be done at an element level (a step, for example, or a paragraph or a table) using conref or keyref. Purpose statements often address the purpose of a document not the purpose of the task which the sequence of tasks is intended to deliver. To make a transition away from managing procedures towards process management, an organization must answer whether it has: The underlying principles of the business excellence model and the latest versions of ISO 9000, ISO 9001 and ISO 9004 should leave people in no doubt that the change in language from procedure to process is not about perception or semantics. the procedure and the task has the same owner(owner has global execute task privilege). Procedures play little or no role in either one. Will this programming technique cause my code to run in a way that compromises the deterministic nature of other threads in the system. A task is the steps for doing a particular piece of work. Systems of documentation to documented systems, Quality and the context of an organization. garment inspection checking garments method inspect clockwise procedure shirt No matter what is possible in theory, we know which one actually wins: reuse. Youre concerned about a lack of standards or guidelines, and I agree. Often there is no connection between the purpose statement and the procedure. And real information typing, the kind that produces strongly typed topics that are guaranteed to do the job they were designed to do, can save you money in other ways, by increasing the opportunities for automation and reducing the content management overhead that can slowly cripple loosely-typed systems. In many situations, the mystery for the user is not how do I turn the knob, but how do I decide what setting to turn to knob to. Decision making, not execution, is where the difficulty lies. (LogOut/

For some completely inexperienced users, the recipe would start like this: 1. If we are not concerned about how something is done and are interested only in the result we do not produce procedures but issue instructions such as 'post the letter', 'repair the spin drier' or 'recruit another person'. Embedded operating systems are packaged in thousands of separate modules, and the OS configuration that is actually loaded on any particular model of a device is probably completely unique to that device. The distinction should be very clear. An input could be material, information, people or a set of conditions and these are passed through a sequence of stages during which they are either used, transformed or their status changed to emerge as an output with different characteristics. Generally I completely agree with your meaning of a task. But recipes dont start out by saying: 1. You can then use SYSTEM$GET_PREDECESSOR_RETURN_VALUE in your next task to condition your actions (for example doing nothing if the return_value contains an error). Level of Training Investigations of a Dog, Levels of Problems in Culture Investigations of a Dog, Principles behind a good system Investigations of a Dog, Seven elements of good problem-solving Investigations of a Dog, Quality-as-Imagined versus Quality-as-Done Investigations of a Dog, Procedure is Work-as-Prescribed Investigations of a Dog, Attributable within a Process Investigations of a Dog, Knowledge Transfer Investigations of a Dog, Visual Management Investigations of a Dog, Identifying Waste in Risk Management Investigations of a Dog, Document Management Investigations of a Dog, Changes, Changes Everywhere Investigations of a Dog, Indirect Accountability Investigations of a Dog, Evaluating Controls as Part of Risk Management Investigations of a Dog, The Great Man Fallacy and Pharmaceutical Quality Investigations of a Dog, Understanding How to Organize Process Investigations of a Dog, The RACI (and RASCI) Chart Investigations of a Dog, The Building Blocks of Work-as-Prescribed Investigations of a Dog, Microfeedback for Adjusting Behaviors Investigations of a Dog, Follow Investigations of a Dog on WordPress.com, Flow of sequences of activities that transform input elements into results, Specific and required way to carry out a process, Describe the correct steps to perform a specific task, What we do By Whom Where it takes place When it happens, How to accomplish a specific task within a process with very detailed directions, It may consist of 0, 1 or more task instructions, Explains how to do but doesnt get to all the details of how it is done, All of the detail of all the steps to follow in an activity, Provides the workflow model at the highest level using BPMN, Document with both narrative and images, usually in the form of use cases and workflow diagrams, Document with the maximum detail that explains step by step the instructions that must be carried out in an activity. Configuring an operating system correctly for a particular device is all about making the right set of trade-offs between functionality, size, speed, and security. In a DITA task topic, a procedure is packaged with other supporting elements such as prerequisites, context, examples, results, and what to do next. The issue is not what the topic type allows them to do, but what it demands that they do. I dont think its the job of the tool (in this case, the way in which topic is defined) to enforce good practices. Learn how your comment data is processed. flush engine marine plumbing boat forespar tech tips In its simplest form a procedure is a way in which one works to accomplish a task. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Each step can be a sequence of activities and each activity a sequence of actions. A configuration task topic for any sub-component of a system is mostly a checklist of things to think about: how many communication channels will be required for different applications to talk to each other. They both use editors, debuggers, and compilers but not in any way different from how these tools are used in every other programming task. Find centralized, trusted content and collaborate around the technologies you use most.

Trending is based off of the highest score sort and falls back to it if no posts are trending. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Configuration is generally done by writing a text file. Privacy Policy. I think this approach has a lot of potential, even though it (obviously) doesnt work in printed documentation and, admittedly, I dont think DITA does it very well (yet). Such (documented) procedures may be written, not as a sequence of activities or steps but as a series of requirements or a series of responsibilities. Programs written to run on that operating system call that API to interact with all the peripherals and components of the system. Movie about robotic child seeking to wake his mother. How do we show the sequence of processes? Go to the market (down the road, see map A) and buy some tomatoes (see fig. Every programming task for an avionics programmer is complicated by considerations such as: These are really important questions, and if you are writing a programming task topic for a real-time embedded systems programmer, you need to make sure you treat these kinds of subjects in every programming topic you write. Theres no room for options in there, as they would distract the completely unexperienced from the task at hand. This appears to be a fairly obvious statement. Creating rules to process an XML content stream and writing code to control shared access to a serial port are both programming tasks. What Does Standalone Mean? Whether any change is necessary depends upon perception and attitude. ventriculostomy evd neurosurgical contextually placement One section goes into excruciating detail; the next skims the surface. A recipe is a task topic, and it has a certain well established form. You can use SYSTEM$SET_RETURN_VALUE to set a return value in you first task. Alex, thanks for the comment and my apologies for the delay in replying. While it certainly is a mistake to equate task with procedure, I think that a well-formed task topic, with links to supporting conceptual and reference information, does a pretty good job of guiding a reader through most tasks. A random collection of statements is not a procedure unless we rearrange these in a sequence that enables someone to proceed. Go to the market and buy some tomatoes. when I called the same stored procedure with task it shows(task_history) as succeed. As for linking to ancillary material, and for implementing things like progressive disclosure (which I think is a great idea), the kind of topic typing I am talking about makes these things very much easier to implement. Every operating system has an API. There are many things that the person completing a task needs to know that are not best presented in procedural terms. Providing a mechanism for breaking content into chunks and reusing the chunks may save a company money on its technical communications budget, but it does little or nothing to prevent the errors and omissions that lead to user frustration (at least) and the catastrophic loss of life and money (at worst). I have been through enough conversions of content to know that no matter how good or how thorough the writers are, when you actually define and apply a strict topic template to their content, they are amazed and horrified by the inconsistencies, omissions, and outright errors that are exposed as a result. Second: You say, If writers are producing tiny, incomplete topics just so they can be reused, theyre not doing it right. I agree with you, but it is very clear that many DITA users are doing just this, and that many DITA consultants appear to be recommending they do just this. it has to be checked manually. Select columns from result set of stored procedure, Insert results of a stored procedure into a temporary table, Function vs. This kind of information typing is a vital part of what you do to avoid those kinds of issues. Instead, its the job of the information architecture. Tasks are fractal. We have plating processes and there may be plating procedures. Chop the tomatoes finely. We do not procedure information but we may employ a procedure to process information. In order to satisfy the requirements, needs and expectations of the interested parties (customers, shareholders, employees, suppliers and community) organizations have to identify the critical processes that deliver satisfaction. The question of what an individual reader needs is, of course, an issue, and it is really a big part of what topic typing should address. One of the frustrations of the blogging form is that it does not leave much room for elaboration and qualification. So, you will need multiple task topics at different levels of generality, and those at a higher level of generality will need to make reference to tasks at a lower level of generality, to which they should presumably provide a link. To equate a task topic with a procedure information block, as DITA does, is to obscure this point, a point which is fundamental to what task-oriented writing is supposed to be about. You can now choose to sort by Trending, which boosts votes that have happened recently, helping to surface more up-to-date answers. This is what topic-based writing and task topic types should be about, therefore: creating topics that function for the user by consistently and reliably enabling them toaccomplishthe whole of their real-world tasks. Most programming task topics are built around code samples, not procedures.

Pour tomatoes into casserole and sprinkle with salt. The result is usually horrendous gaps in the information, and a horrendously inconsistent reading experience for the user. I blog at everypageispageone.com and tweet as @mbakeranalecta. In this context, the plating process comprises the resources, people, plant and machinery, and the plating procedure contains the instructions on how to plate material. DITA doesnt make these things impossible, though it does in some cases make them more difficult than they should be. In The Tyranny of the Terrible Troika, I complained that the now almost universal trio of concept, task, and reference did not properly represent what topic-based writing and information typing are really about, and I promised to show why each one, as popularly practiced, fails as both a topic type and as an information type. But they are not task topics. Inherently processes do not normally recognize departmental or functional boundaries (but are often hindered by them) nor the boundaries between customers and suppliers. Those are issues an information architect should be deciding. I begin with this: a task is not a procedure. Consider a recipe. What you see in many documentation sets is that this issue has been decided very differently from one topic, chapter, or section to another. That is, not only must the automatic pilot be capable of figuring out how to fly the plane around the mountain, it must be guaranteed to figure it out and execute the maneuver before the plane hits the mountain. A set of self-assembly instructions is a procedure as it tells how to proceed to assemble the product. By clicking Post Your Answer, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

In practice, though, we dont use it that way very often. A procedure is a set of instructions for manipulating a machine. Pingback: The Real Docs Need is Decision Support - Every Page is Page One. We have process interrupt but not procedure interrupt, because processes are perceived as continuous and run until physical intervention. That ought to be irrefutable.

And we see the too-frequent result: Frankenbooks. Make sure the kids wash their hands. Each process has an objective with both quantitative and qualitative measures of its outputs directly related to its objectives. Where developers & technologists share private knowledge with coworkers, Reach developers & technologists worldwide, how to get the output of a stored procedure as task output in snowflake, Snowflake a working procedure is not being successfully executed when calling it within a scheduled task, Code completion isnt magic; it just feels that way (Ep. This is a static archive of the Every Page is Page One blog, which is no longer being updated. I certainly agree that a task topic with only a procedure is almost never sufficient. Also, I use the word task more broadly than you do. Change). Why is a "Correction" Required in Multiple Hypothesis Testing? (Approving a new OS module might cost a million dollars or more!). Process, Procedure, Policy What is the difference. Hence processes act upon inputs and are dormant until the input is received. I think here were up to something I wouldnt have thought of in the first read. A procedure is certainly, in the Information Mapping sense, an information block. Is it patent infringement to produce patented goods but take no compensation? The term process on the other hand might appear to be new in ISO 9001:2000 but the concept of an organization being a network of processes was addressed in ISO 9000:1994 so it is not new. Please visit https://gmbaker.net for my current projects. Procedures are driven by completion of the task, Processes are driven by achievement of a desired outcome, Procedures steps are completed by different people in different departments with different objectives, Process stages are completed by different people with the same objectives; departments do not matter, Processes focus on satisfying the customer, Procedures define the sequence of steps to execute a task, Processes generate results through use of resources, Procedures are used by people to carry out a task, People work through a process to achieve an objective, Procedures only cause people to take actions and decisions, Processes make things happen, regardless of people following procedures, Processes function through the actions and decisions that are taken, Procedures identify the tasks to be carried out, People select the appropriate procedures to be followed at each stage of a process, We seem to think that we have created a procedure by classifying a document as a procedure.

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