Our help desk decided this semester to start a project where we would create a cookbook of our processes and procedures. This cookbook would be in the form of a manual that would be in print and electronic formats and would serve as a basis for choosing Six Sigma projects and for training our staff and as a reference document.

First we categorized our help desk into seven major categories that we support: systems, operating systems, networking, security, IT services, help desk, and internal processes. Each of these categories contains from two to eight other items for a manual with 28 chapters. Second we began collecting data from those who work closest with these processes. The data includes everything from the process in a flowchart to who are the process owners. This is still in the works. Now we’re also working on what format to put this work in. We’ve decided that our flowcharts will be put into Visio. Our cookbook will be written in LaTeX and put in PDF format for the web and printed as a paper copy too.