thinking backwards

Many processes and activities seem to begin in a logical place: with what you have. In document automation, systems will typically pull material from data and content stores and manipulate them into a coherent flow and relevant context. This is how contract or bid building systems usually work - selecting paragraphs from libraries of copy and stringing them together for editing and combining with entered words. The issue this can create, however, is chunky or blocky content that risks losing editorial consistency at best and risks looking ugly and inaccessible at worst.  Since Stephen Covey coined the mantra "start with the end in mind", many people have emphasised the benefits of outcome or output oriented processes: such as in business planning, market research, or deployment projects. The approach applies to document automation as much as anything. Important relationship-defining documents are more than content collections - they are devices for cementing expectations as well as demonstrations of how parties will communicate in a relationship. Whether it be a sales proposal or a procurement contract, it must be fiercely reader-oriented. To do that, it's design should start with the desired reader experience and outcome before populating pages with rules-based words.