We need more documented lullaby words...

I was in a meeting once where someone said, "We need a documented process for ...". It doesn't matter what process they wanted documented, what's important is that I think I picked up on another lullaby word. If you're not familiar with lullaby language, Weinberg talks about it here, but I originally read about it in one of his many books (I've read so many I truly have a hard time remembering which lessons came from which).



I don't know why I happened to pick up on it during this meeting, but right after it was said I caught myself thinking:

Why use the word "documented" when we talk about process? We don't need a documented process, we need a process! I don't care if the process is documented and we still don't follow it. I just care about a process that works. I guess the underlying assumption here is that documenting the process makes it more likely to happen?

I'm sure documenting the process is a good thing. I just found it funny that we were talking about documenting it before we even knew what it was...