David Zinger, an author and Management Consultant from Winnipeg, noted that Malcolm Gladwell, in his book “Outliers: The Story of Success”, stated that it takes 10,000 hours to be a ‘world-class expert’ in virtually anything. He added that we must fuse this work and time spent with a strong integration of ‘practical intelligence’.
Doing the math, an hour a day means we’d have to spend over 27 years to be an ‘expert’. While not trying to become an ‘expert’ musician for example, we do want to be an effective and competent Document Controller, a role that is no less professional. Our task then is to use that time effectively and not burden ourselves by spending time ensuring the tools we use actually do the job.
We often find ourselves using spreadsheets, word processors and other such tools to do clerical work such as adding header and footers, creating and updating cover sheets, costing quotations for a project owner, etc. Why not let an easy to use tool like DocBoss do that for us and give us back those many hours we spend ensuring the many tools we use ‘play well together’. This application of ‘practical intelligence’ will help you control documents much easier.
You can save time by coupling your already gained practical knowledge about how to control documents with the use of a tool to remove the clerical effort from the job. You can then apply this time to those areas of project document control that really need your skills.
DocBoss is an application that is accessible via a web browser and automates many or the time consuming aspects of your work. It manages the metadata that defines the documents you handle and gives project personnel the assurance that ‘their documents’ are in good hands. The DocBoss users can find out the status and location of any document, including some that a reviewer might have combined into a single returned and approved document.
As we add new documents and receive others after their review, DocBoss allows you to update the metadata for each of these documents and automatically create an updated copy of the Record Book. You no longer need to search for document references within a spreadsheet to update their status.
Your creation and use of processes and knowledge of document control are the building blocks to becoming that ‘expert’. Getting there without spending 10,000 hours on the job is something DocBoss can help. DocBoss allows you use your Document Control professional skills to the fullest.