good line

I think some people have noticed that if you *do* write down exactly what you know and what you do, the next step is that the boss gives what you wrote to someone he thinks will be cheaper, and fires you. (There is an argument that this is the actual purpose of ISO 9000.)

Matt Roberds

The second part of Julianne's premise takes care of that. Besides, ISO9000 was a european invention, and nobody gets fired in europe.

Engineers are paid to exercise good judgement.

Right. ISO9000 was a job protection ploy for the EU. They totally underestimated the ability of US corporations to generate useless paper.

Like any tool, ISO9000 is useful if properly used and can cause great damage if used improperly. Like many tools, it's usually just left on a shelf in the lobby to impress visitors.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

That ALSO applies to job specs.

If you can write down exactly what you know and what you do, you must not know much or do much.

Dan

It's a good line for warming up an audience, but it's a gross exaggeration, and no argument for giving up on documenting procedures, or following the documented procedures as far as is practical.

Cambridge Instruments started tightening up their procedures in late

It's a whole lot more important for complicated instruments than for relatively simple stuff like pulse generators and laser diode drivers.

Can't recall which philosopher it was, but the following quote (from memory) covers this, and just about everything else as well...

"Out of the gnarled timer of humanity, nothing straight can ever be made".

You can't build a good ship without a few loads of compass timber.

Jeroen Belleman

Where is this mystical europe located? In that Europe, I live in, pink slips are a very common thing :-)

Regards, Klaus

How about this:

By "international standards", he meant ISO-OSI and the seven-splendored stack.

Joe Gwinn

I thought they only wore slips on casual Fridays? ;-)

Some only need the back of a business card. :(

Some, recently, have gotten around to using the back.