Document Assembly Resource
Document assembly is a fairly new industry in Australia and as such, is not widely in use as yet. Many firms are researching and starting to utilise document assembly as a means to remain competitive and profitable in the marketplace. Other firms have identified document assembly as a valid means of quality assurance compliance or simply a means of producing documents that "look and feel" the same, regardless of which author and which secretary produced a given document.
Originally, this entire section had been spec'd and planned out, with lots of content rich pages with screenshots and discussion topics. After a week or so of solid work, I realised that I was falling victim to a very poor thought process: not planning ahead and identifying goals that I wished to achieve. The result of this "waking up" is that the "document assembly section" has been moved to the forums, which can be found here.
The purpose of the document assembly forums is to educate and assist entities in making decisions regarding document assembly. There are already several "off the shelf" products and systems that espouse the brilliance of document assembly. Therefore, we will only be touching lightly on this area. Similarly, there are several precedent package offerings well known by the legal community and these will not be dealt with. Our sections deal with "purist" document assembly - the benefits and usages of document assembly, quite separate to document management, practice management systems and workflow solutions. Whilst document assembly ties in heavily with these areas, custom document assembly is a separate and distinct avenue for profit generation.
In the DDS Forums...
The forums are a mechanism for me to deliver articles and walkthroughs in small and digestible chunks. They are designed so that a viewer with no document assembly knowledge could "take it from the top" and start reading. Alternatively, a developer who is well aware of docuement assembly may start in the section imaginitively titled "Developers of Docuement Assembly". Following is a brief index of the forums.
About the Document Assembly Board
A general welcome and how to get around the forums. Also includes important information such as a glossary of terms used and a look at what a document really is.
Before You Invest in Document Assembly
Possibly the most important section of the forums, this section deals with an overview of document assembly, and some example levels of the degree to which it can be taken. Reasons behind why you should (or shouldn't) invest in document assembly are listed, as well as some "investment checklists" to assist with identifying exactly what you want from document assembly. This section wraps up with some common myths and misperceptions regarding document assembly.
Developers of Document Assembly
Targetted at those people who are already involved in document assembly, this section looks at a method and approach to develop better systems. All too often, document assembly is marketed as "get two days training and you are good to go". This is far from the truth and in fact, is quite damaging. The concept of this section is to look at a proven method of developing document assembly, a process of:
- analyse and correlate the documents that will form the "core content" of a system to be programmed
- on a document by document basis, identify data groups that will eventually become dialogs in the system
- markup pseudo-code into a separate tracking document, as opposed to commencing development immediately
- analysing the tracking document when finished, refining your code & approach and then programming it
For any programmer, this would appear to be a common sense and "taken for granted" approach to programming. However, when the subject developer was formerly a secretary or PA with no programming background under their belt, the result is unstructured and unplanned systems. This section aims to look at the process of planned development.
Complex Document Assembly Systems
This section is to be totally reconstructed at the earliest opportunity. The purpose of this section is purely a personal one: to show what document assembly is truly capable of. I will be collecting screenshots and walkthroughs of complex systems I have built, or have co-built with Seth & Rose Rowland Basha Systems, as a partner of that company. While the intent may appear to be showboating (this is unavoidable I think...), the real intent is simply to demonstrate how far you can push it. Many companies and firms who utilise document assembly are hugely under utilising its capabilities without being aware of it!
Document Assembly: General
A basic section that will eventually list items of interest, news, links to articles and other such general stuff.
Open Invitation
If you visit the forums and wish to add or reply to anything there, please feel free to do so. "Flaming" or other discourteous posting will be quickly edited - I want these forums to remain an open resource that will grow to be a real helping hand for anyone dealing with document assembly. In this regard, feel free to post in the "Open to the Public" forum in the "Document Assembly: General" category. The only thing I ask is to send me constructive criticism directly to my email.