The internal process of documenting a task or a process is about “how” it is implemented and “what” is implemented. Documenting is particularly helpful if a breakdown occurs, such as when an expert working in a task leaves her job or to substitute one task in a set of interrelated processes by another. Documentation provides consistency for the taskand allows its monitoring, analysis and revision during a project.
There are different methods for documenting a task to transform tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge. Therefore, the task should be documented by describing it in video format and using visual tools that allow documentation, or the maintenance of a field diary.
In particular cases, the creation of user guides or manuals could be considered a subset of a process description particularly addressed to external users. A user manual should take into account the target users to adapt its content to them.
A workflow is a sequence of operations that splits real work in several steps. A workflow is often described in a document that, by the use of particular elements, serves as a visual representation of actual work.