Document Review

It is noted that document review is helpful for gathering background

information, determining if program implementation reflects program plans,
and developing other data collection tools for evaluation.

Document review has several advantages, including being relatively

inexpensive, providing a behind-the-scenes look at a program that may not
be directly observable, and bringing up issues not noted by other means.
However, there are also potential disadvantages, such as information being
incomplete or inaccurate, biased due to selective survival of information, and
time-consuming to collect, review, and analyze many documents.

What is a Document Review?

While a document review is often associated with basic proofreading, it
involves far more than that. A document review involves strategically:
Verifying Information Accuracy and Quality
The key purpose of a document review is to verify the accuracy and
relevance of the information presented in a document. Whether it's
an employee onboarding document or a sales playbook, a meticulous
document review process ensures that a document is accurate and up-to-
standard. This allows it to achieve desired outcomes such as informing,
instructing, or persuading readers.
Improving Delivery and Credibility
Another critical aspect of document review is assessing information delivery
for clarity and grammar, spelling, or punctuation errors. Left unchecked,
these issues can affect readability, and in turn, the usefulness of a
document. They also give readers a poor impression of your organization and
bring the document's credibility into question.
Enhancing Structure and Formatting
A document review ensures a document's formatting and structure increase
readability and comprehension. This is done by evaluating and enhancing the
use of headings, subheadings, tables, images, bullet points, and more.
Ensuring Compliance
Document review helps you adhere to regulations such as the General Data
Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Plain Writing Act that require you to
turn all legalese into plain language for customers. Also, when it comes to
policies and other regulatory documents, a comprehensive document review
serves to protect your interests.
Maintaining Consistency
A document review provides a standardized process for consistently
delivering documents that are clear, professional, and on-brand. In turn, this
builds trust with customers, employees, and stakeholders.
Why is the Document Review Process Crucial?
As a business, your documents play an indispensable role in customer
communication, employee education, knowledge sharing, guiding workflows,
and informing critical business decisions. If they're riddled with errors, and
difficult to understand, this can stifle productivity, sour customer experience,
and expose you to risk.
By reviewing documents and improving their quality, you:
 Stop misinformation in its tracks.
 Ensure your documents fulfill their intended purpose.
 Cover your legal bases.
 Boost productivity by making it easy to find relevant information.
Imagine what that means for some of your teams:
 Sales and Marketing: Stronger brand image, happier customers, and
more sales.
 HR: Faster onboarding, higher employee engagement, and less legal
risk.
 Production and Operations: Greater efficiency, higher product quality,
and fewer errors.
5-Step Document Review Process
With so much hanging in the balance, you need a strategic approach to
reviewing your documents. A haphazard approach could lead to costly errors,
missed opportunities, or worse. We're here to walk you through how to ace it
in 5 steps.
Step 1: Establish Document Review Goals
Start by figuring out what the goals of your document review are. You can do
this by asking yourself questions like
 What is the document's intent?
  How can the review process enhance this intent?
With your goals in mind, you'll be able to select the appropriate reviewers for
your document as well as craft a targeted review strategy.
For example:
“The purpose of this product guide is to educate customers on our new
product offering. The document review process will check for technical
accuracy, clear explanation, easy navigation, and consistency with our brand
voice, ensuring that it is easy to understand and helpful to our customers.”
“The purpose of this employee handbook is to outline company policies and
our expectations for employees. The document review process will check for
compliance with key labor regulations, clear delivery, and alignment with our
company values, ensuring that it is a reliable resource for new hires and
current employees.”
As the examples above illustrate, each document has its own unique purpose
and will need its own objectives and tailored review process.
Key Tip: Answer key questions about expectations early and set
specific objectives to ensure a seamless document review process.
Step 2: Assign a Review Team
You know the saying, too many cooks spoil the broth? Don't fall into the trap
of taking on too many reviewers. Keep your team lean to avoid conflicting
feedback, unnecessary delays, and a potentially watered-down document.
To enhance a document's quality and relevance, the following people should
be involved in the review process:
Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)
Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) have in-depth knowledge and expertise on
your document's subject matter. They ensure technical accuracy, relevance,
and fill any information gaps.
For example, a product manual review would benefit from a developer or
designer's expertise, while an HR policy document would require the
expertise of an HR manager or member of the legal team.
Editors
Editors have a keen eye for clear delivery, optimal structure, and consistent
style. They ensure your document is concise, flows logically, and reads
effortlessly.
Legal and Compliance Teams
With their in-depth knowledge of laws, regulations, and standards, legal and
compliance teams help you avoid legal woes. They ensure your document is
compliant, safeguarding your assets, reputation, and interests.
End Users
End users are a document's intended audience. This could be customers,
employees, or stakeholders. Your document seeks to address their needs,
concerns, and information gaps, so who better to give you detailed
feedback? Getting an end user involved in the review process guarantees
that your document is helpful and effective.
Key Tip: Limit the number of reviewers and ensure each reviewer
operates within the scope of their expertise.
Step 3: Formulate a Document Review Plan
Next, set up a document review plan with clear guidelines and
protocols. Incorporating a process map here can be incredibly beneficial. It
visually outlines each step of the document review, ensuring that all team
members are aligned and understand the workflow comprehensively. This
clarity can significantly reduce misunderstandings and streamline the review
process.
Key elements to include in your document review plan:
 The purpose of the document. Is it to inform, persuade, or instruct?
 The intended audience. What is the typical end user's knowledge
level, and what are their expectations?
 Specific reviewer roles. What will each reviewer bring to the review
process?
 The review workflow. What tools will you use? When are the stages
of the review process due? How will feedback be implemented?
Develop a document review system with clear guidelines and and
detailed process map to ensure each document is reviewed
consistently, and in line with your goals.
Step 4: Conduct Your Document Review
With clear objectives and a plan in place, your review team can work its
magic. Establish key milestones and insist on consistent check-ins to keep
things running smoothly.
It's also a good idea to establish clear communication channels between
reviewers, writers, and key stakeholders. This includes how concerns or
questions will be addressed and how disagreements will be resolved.
Key Tip: Encourage open employee communication and consistent
progress check-ins to prevent roadblocks and keep the document
review process running efficiently.
Step 5: Evaluate your Document Review
After finalizing the reviewed document, secure it and ensure end users have
access to it.
Next, evaluate the document review process itself. What went well? What
didn't?
Talk to your team and get their perspective on what could be streamlined or
enhanced for future reviews.
Remember, it's an iterative process, so keep your review teams motivated
and focused on continuous improvement.
Key Tip: Refine your process and set a regular document review
schedule to keep your documents relevant, and up-to-date.
Tools to Optimize the Document Review Process
The document review process might seem daunting, but it doesn't have to
be. Incorporating the right tools into your workflow can streamline the
process. Here are a few suggestions to get you started.
Grammar and Style Checkers
Grammar and style checkers help you spot a range of writing issues, from
grammar and spelling errors, to style and formatting inconsistencies. They
ensure that your documents are polished, professional, and up-to-standard.
Project Management Software
Project management platforms supercharge productivity and can help
optimize your document review process by:
 Assigning tasks
 Setting deadlines
 Tracking progress
 Monitoring multiple review projects
Document Management Systems
Document Management Systems (DMS) go beyond simple storage and
organization. Modern document management software solutions come with
features to streamline your document review process. In addition to
providing a secure, centralized location for your documents they also offer:
 Workflow monitoring
 Comments and feedback
 Audit trails
 Access control
Content Management Systems
Content Management Systems (CMS) offer a host of features to simplify your
document review process. These include:
 Collaborative editing
 Version control
 Automated workflows
Knowledge Base Tools
Knowledge base tools like Helpjuice can streamline your document review
process while giving you the added benefits of a knowledge-base. Think of
a knowledge base as a centralized, well-organized collection of all your
documents. But instead of simply storing, and securing them, a knowledge
base makes your documents easily searchable and accessible to customers,
employees, and other stakeholders.
That said, let's go into what makes Helpjuice the perfect addition to your
document review process.
 WYSIWYG Editor with Markdown - Robust authoring and formatting
features to help you create well-structured documents right off the bat.
 Article Planner - Acts like a streamlined Trello board, organizing any
article requests from your contact form, helping you prioritize what
content to create next.
 Broken URL checker - Ensures all links to your documents are
working so you don't hit any snags during your document review
process.
 View authors, collaborators, user roles and user groups - Shows
you who's on the document review team, promoting transparency and
open communication.
  Commenting and Feedback - Lets you leave comments and replies
that stay visible until resolved, so no feedback is overlooked.
 Request viewers - Allows you to invite different team members to
review a document and track how long a document has been in review
for.
 Activity Tracking - Helps you track and view all revisions made by
reviewers with timestamps and side-by-side comparisons.
 Version Control - Allows you to create and track multiple versions of
a document for greater accountability and rollback capabilities.

What are the stages of document review?

The stages of document review are planning, preparation, review, revision,

approval, and finalization.

What is a document review checklist?

A document review checklist is an itemized list of criteria that helps

reviewers evaluate the accuracy, clarity, compliance, and effectiveness of a
document.