It is a very sound practice to start asking, “What documents do we have?” Then the next question obviously is, “Why do we have these documents?” When we know the reason to have a particular document, we immediately know whether that document is relevant for the organization or if it is just a remnant of a past we need no longer support. If the document is relevant, then that document will need to have an associated flow inside the organization: People will need to know that the document exists, and people will also need to process it with some sort of decision. This is the basic work of the first step when trying to improve the effectiveness of an organization.
Read the full article by Joao Penha-Lopes on documentmedia.com.