Collaborative document review

Producing a quality document is usually a collaborative process which involves the input of more than one individual. This process takes time and commitment, from the document's creation, through to its editing and review.

Document production

Documents are produced by individuals and departments within organizations across industry sectors. Example documents include: contracts, RFPs, regulatory filings, clinical trial reports, regulatory submissions, agreements, policies & procedures, marketing material, new product specifications, etc. Electronic formats for document creation include Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF and plain text.

The review process

Document review is an important business process, requiring considerable resources. It is often a bottleneck in the overall document production lifecycle, and is a business process often subject to user 'workarounds’.^[1]

The review process typically follows these steps:

- Document created by owner/author
- Sections of the document may need further editing so ‘shared’ with other authors
- Edits collated and input into the original document
- Document ‘shared’ with other contributors (e.g. SMEs, colleagues, partners, suppliers, and consultants) for review
- Contributors review the document. Typically this review includes:

• Identifying typos
• Identifying syntax & other grammatical errors
• Altering content
• Adding or deleting content

- Reviewed content is returned to the owner/author
- Owner/author inputs changes and comments to the document as appropriate
- The review cycle is completed

nb.Several review cycles may be required to agree changes to the document content.

Workarounds

Workarounds to manage the review process tend to follow the routes below:

Email attachments: sending out the document for review by email as an attachment

Pros	Cons
multiple individuals can review the document	no collaboration
enables simultaneous review	confidentiality issues
	difficulty consolidating comments & changes into the original document
	version control issues
	no reporting/audit trail

Review meetings: gathering those involved in the document together for a meeting

Pros	Cons
collaborative	cost
maintains confidentiality	organizational issues (e.g. absences)
no version issues	no formal reporting/ audit trail
	version control issues

Web or telephone conferencing: gathering those involved in the review for a 'remote' meeting via web and/or tele conferencing

Pros	Cons
collaborative	reviewers must be online at the same time
maintains confidentiality	organizational issues (e.g. absences)
no version issues	no formal reporting/ audit trail

Collaborative document review software

A new generation of collaborative tools has evolved which support coordination of review activities via a web based service. This has the advantage that participants do not have to install specialised software or be linked in to a particular network. Access is through a web browser - anywhere and anytime.^[2]
Examples of types of software include:
Generic collaborative portals, PDF-based solutions, review functionality within Document/Content Management systems (usually PDF-based), Microsoft SharePoint/Office and specific collaborative portals, such as PleaseTech's PleaseReview.
Whilst most options allow for document review it is rare to find a single solution which permits simultaneous and collaborative review of the same copy of a document. When researching appropriate software, certain functionality should be expected. The list below is suggestive and not exhaustive:

Feature	Description
collaborative	allows reviewers to see each other’s comments in real time, so they see and can reply to others’ comments
comment association	allows reviewers to easily associate a comment with a specific location in the document
comment consolidation	provides the consolidation of comments into the original document
control	the author/owner has control over of the document, including which changes are applied, review parameters, who has access to the review etc.
offline option	allows reviewers to review the document without a network connection and share their comments when they come back online
reporting	review metrics are automatically captured for analysis and reporting
same copy	everyone is reviewing the same copy of the document
round trip for key document formats (e.g. Microsoft Word, PDF)	at the end of the review the author does not have to manually apply changes, getting back the Word/ PDF document with changes applied
secure	document contents are secure, even outside the corporate firewall (e.g. when reviewing the document with external parties)
simultaneous	multiple reviewers can review the same document at the same time
supports multiple document formats	multiple document formats can be reviewed, such as Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, PDF, images, text, source code etc.

Notes

1. ^ http://www.pleasetech.com/
2. ^ Butler, Martin (2009). "The Business Value of Collaboration".