Full object model of a procedure
Here's a diagram of a thorough-going pattern for a procedure. Probably more than you need. So you might start here, and throw out unnecessary components. Of course, at that point, you might decide: Now I need to add some other elements!
So this pattern is not universal.
It's just a pattern that I have found useful in a lot of circumstances, when trying to sort out legacy documents, or craft procedures out of a tangled mess of notes left by several generations of writers, each annotating the other.
The corporations that seem to need something as complex as the full model are companies that produce huge, complex products, often integrating subcomponents from half a dozen or more other manufacturers, resulting in inconsistency, redundant features, special twists and turns, ambushes, and deadends. In those circumstances, you have a lot to introduce, and plenty to explain.
I hope you don't have to write procedures in that environment. If you're describing easier tasks, you'll want to pick and choose components, creating a model that works for your audiences. Let us know what you come up with. (You'll see some folks' variations after the uber-diagram).
Resources:
Help (A chapter from Hot Text: Web Writing that Works. PDF: 995K, or about 18 minutes at 56K).
