[thaumasiotes]

The problem with this advice is that process development is evolutionary. The purpose for which the process was instituted can end up being unrelated to the reasons that the process is beneficial.

That's why traditions develop.

[cntainer]

Actually I think the advice is spot on if you want to continuously evolve your processes.

Every time you revisit a process you can keep it, kill it or amend it. It sounds pretty evolutionary to me.

What I liked is that adding some fail indicators as part of the policy actually gives ammunition to the people that want to change the policy for the better against people that are abusing the current form of the policy.

[romeoblade]

Our company has a process in place that any process or policy gets reviewed either six months or one year, depending on the subject matter. A tech council reviews each, updates, appends, or archives it.

If it's updated, it's sent out to all employees. Some require a digital signature (i.e., a process for handling customer data) to make sure it's read and understood.

Each review has a commenting period (4 weeks) for techs to ask questions or voice their opinion on the changes before it's approved.

It's helped keep the important documentation current, helped the processes evolve and allows the people that actually use the process to have input on the matter.

[kragen]

One would hope that all of your policies are archived; otherwise, how will anyone determine in the future whether a past action was in accordance with the policy when that becomes a question in a lawsuit?

Perhaps by "archive" you mean something like "delete", in which case I would like to strongly encourage you to not use "archive" to mean that, because it's the opposite of the standard meaning of "archive".

[jensensbutton]

That doesn't make the advice problematic. The section is called "reasons to _revisit_" not reasons to kill. If you revisit and find that the policy is still beneficial then keep it.

[kqr]

This is one of the reasons I would like to learn more anthropology. It's a really powerful skill to observe how humans interact and then speculate creatively about what forgotten (or never fully understood) purposes the interactions fulfill.