http://tc.eserver.org/authors/Hackos,_JoAnn_T. A bibliography of works by Hackos, JoAnn T. in the field of technical communication. en-us Copyright (c) 2005-08 by the EServer. All rights reserved. tclib-editorial@eserver.org (TC Library Editorial Board) webmaster@eserver.org (Geoffrey Sauer) http://tc.eserver.org/images/newlogo.gif http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Hackos,_JoAnn_T. http://tc.eserver.org/30799.html http://tc.eserver.org/30799.html JoAnn Hackos, content management and information design expert, gives her best advice on what organizations need to know about moving legacy documentation to DITA. http://tc.eserver.org/30780.html http://tc.eserver.org/30780.html The flat world has had a clear impact on information development and will continue to increase competitive pressure on the profession in the foreseeable future. By adapting to the realities of global organizations and global audiences and instituting a disciplined work environment that thrives on standards and best practices, technical communicators can remain competitive. http://tc.eserver.org/30144.html http://tc.eserver.org/30144.html As Information Development organizations grow and mature, their organizational structure should grow and mature as well. The optimal structure for an organization in its early stages should focus on achieving stability and repeatable quality. As an organization matures, the optimal structure may need to be significantly different to develop a more thorough understanding of customers and contribute substantially to customer satisfaction. http://tc.eserver.org/30141.html http://tc.eserver.org/30141.html The 1998 trends panel will be a continuation of the successful 1995, 96, and 97 programs. Leaders from the communications industry--a mixture of STC strategic thinkers and some new faces from outside of STC--will present their thoughts on the state of the our industry and what will be necessary to keep our members in the forefront of change, as well as what avenues we should explore with our special expertise and how we should prepare for the next millennium. http://tc.eserver.org/30085.html http://tc.eserver.org/30085.html This panel will examine continuous publishing movement from paper to HTML formats, and localization management, which are currently in global transition. Panelists from a translation agency, a consulting firm, and a hardware computer corporation will address how the technical communications organizations must transition in these areas to meet the global requirements of the industry. http://tc.eserver.org/29554.html http://tc.eserver.org/29554.html If we can solicit user participation in a Web 2.0 knowledge community (a volunter wiki documentation, for example), we might have a powerful means for creating high quality content. But how should this process work? http://tc.eserver.org/28559.html http://tc.eserver.org/28559.html Before you begin a pilot project using a CMS, you must understand how it will work. Read on to learn how to define your information model, set up your folder structure, create a metadata scheme, assign roles and responsibilities, define your workflow, and measure results. http://tc.eserver.org/28181.html http://tc.eserver.org/28181.html We seem to be heading in the right direction. The danger is that we keep talking to one another rather than evangelizing to a broader community. http://tc.eserver.org/26061.html http://tc.eserver.org/26061.html In working with information-development groups who want to move into content management and a structured writing environment, I often find that the potential for role of information architect is not well understood. http://tc.eserver.org/26041.html http://tc.eserver.org/26041.html This commentary summarizes the seven articles in this special issue and also argues that technical communication as a profession is in the midst of a disruption caused by low-cost innovators. Technical communicators can counter this trend by drastically reducing costs and increasing productivity in current operations. But the most valuable strategy is the difficult task of pursuing customer knowledge, which is difficult to replicate by those with little access to customers. Working for the customer and providing them with the information they need to be successful in using products and systems is critical to the future of technical communication. http://tc.eserver.org/24955.html http://tc.eserver.org/24955.html Worldwide Communications & Policy is a relatively new department in Federal Express, created to manage communications and produce policy and procedure (P&P) manuals for the largest division in our global company. We asked an outside consultant, JoAnn Hackos & Associates, to evaluate the existing divisional P&P manuals and conduct an audience analysis. We emerged from the process with a plan to change the existing manuals, which tried to be all things to all people, into a collection of audience-specific, task-oriented documents. http://tc.eserver.org/24813.html http://tc.eserver.org/24813.html The publications process maturity model provides a way for organizations to look at themselves and evaluate the effectiveness of their current processes. The model provides them with a set of standards. Dr. JoAnn Hackos will present a picture of a mature organization and provide an opportunity for participants to discuss how their organizations compare. http://tc.eserver.org/24446.html http://tc.eserver.org/24446.html Prospective authors, especially those writing books on technical communications, need an honest view of the publishing process. This panel dispels romantic myths about what is involved in writing and publishing a book so that potential authors hae a greater chance of getting successfully and profitably published. http://tc.eserver.org/24303.html http://tc.eserver.org/24303.html Strategic planning, the process of determining where you intend to be and how you’re going to get there, is absolutely essential to the success of any organization. But our assessment of the information development community indicates that the majority of organizations, whether operating as standalone businesses or as internal functions within larger companies, do little or no strategic planning. One of the main reasons is that they don’t know what strategic planning is, why it’s important, or how to do it. http://tc.eserver.org/24255.html http://tc.eserver.org/24255.html You are ready to visit users and observe how they perform tasks and use documentation. Come work with JoAnn Hackos and Ginny Redish in this demonstration/workshop and learn how to conduct the site visit by observing, probing, listening, and interviewing. http://tc.eserver.org/23144.html http://tc.eserver.org/23144.html How do we prepare for the future? How will trends affect our careers as technical communicators? Do we have the right set of skills to survive? Will it be most important to learn the latest technologies of information delivery? Will it be most important How do we prepare for the future? How will trends affect our careers as technical communicators: Do we have the right set of skills to survive? Will it be most important to learn the latest technologies of information delivery? Will it be most important to become effective consultants and members of product- and informationdesign teams, experts on the communication and use of information that supports human performance? Just what will the next five or ten years bring? How will the technical communication professional survive and prosper? http://tc.eserver.org/22165.html http://tc.eserver.org/22165.html Introduces the five levels of single-sourcing. http://tc.eserver.org/22147.html http://tc.eserver.org/22147.html Minimalism in information design, specifically as applied to user tutorials and manuals, was introduced in the early 1980s through the work of Dr. John M. Carroll, then a cognitive psychologist at the IBM Watson Research Center. Since that time, theorists and practitioners have further elucidated the principles of minimalism and have attempted to apply it to a variety of situations in which people attempt to learn how to use a software application. Most recently, a new exposition of minimalist principles and practices was published by MIT Press. This work, <i>Minimalism Beyond the Nurnberg Funnel,</i> represents the work of leading theorists and practitioners in the field. http://tc.eserver.org/22152.html http://tc.eserver.org/22152.html The information model is a framework for organizing all the information people need. http://tc.eserver.org/22155.html http://tc.eserver.org/22155.html It's not about buying a tool; it's about understanding your requirements. http://tc.eserver.org/22149.html http://tc.eserver.org/22149.html Discusses the creation of managed and sustainable workflow. http://tc.eserver.org/22161.html http://tc.eserver.org/22161.html Redesign your information; write topics, not books. http://tc.eserver.org/22158.html http://tc.eserver.org/22158.html What is strategic planning? A process for determining: where you are; where you intend to be; how you’re going to get there. http://tc.eserver.org/22148.html http://tc.eserver.org/22148.html Why should we be interested in strategic planning for our information-development organizations? We might simply apply specific tactics for getting our everyday jobs done. We might focus our concerns on producing a manual or getting the online help finished. We might even plan far enough in advance to send staff members to workshops on the latest online help development tools. These tactics would get us through the day, or the week, or even through the end of the year, and we would be busy doing useful things (or at least things that we hope others find useful). But as we keep busy doing our everyday jobs, we may find ourselves surprised by the decisions of those who decide to eliminate our function, outsource our tasks, or disperse our staff throughout the organization. Only then we will recognize that we lacked an overall goal, a vision of what we should be doing, of how we want to be perceived in the future. http://tc.eserver.org/22153.html http://tc.eserver.org/22153.html A discussion of how XML changes what you do as a writer. http://tc.eserver.org/22144.html http://tc.eserver.org/22144.html Technical communicators today must document complex applications used in complex environments. Information about users and use models is important under these conditions, especially if documentation will be presented online. Customer partnering, a method of information gathering that supplements surveys, contextual inquiries, usability testing, and interviews, provides a way of involving the users of complex applications in the design of information delivery systems. We used this method to help a client gather important information about user and use models and design a new information library for complex server computer systems. http://tc.eserver.org/22146.html http://tc.eserver.org/22146.html The potential problems I detailed in working to integrate training and documentation functions do indeed occur in many organizations. They have also found that working out the problems is worth the effort. http://tc.eserver.org/22138.html http://tc.eserver.org/22138.html Discusses ways to communicate the financial benefits, customer value, learning and growth opportunities, and internal process improvements made possible by single sourcing. http://tc.eserver.org/22142.html http://tc.eserver.org/22142.html In brief, documents are created everywhere by everyone. They each develop the documents any way they like, with no common look and feel. Company officials have vehemently opposed hiring technical communicators for the R&D teams. They feel that the engineers know the products best and should be able to write about them. Marketing materials are created independently by many different marketing staff and even by executives who regularly post announcements to the company intranet and Internet sites. http://tc.eserver.org/21484.html http://tc.eserver.org/21484.html This panel will introduce the audience to the basic concepts and components of strategic thinking and planning and will provide practical examples of application in a variety of information-development organizations. http://tc.eserver.org/21264.html http://tc.eserver.org/21264.html How do we prepare for the future? How will trends affect our careers as technical communicators? Do we have the right set of skills to survive? http://tc.eserver.org/20724.html http://tc.eserver.org/20724.html The nature of a corporation and its product line(s) influences the optimal structure for your information-development organization. When lines of business are unrelated, information-development organizations may best function independently; when lines of business are interrelated, the groups need a unified strategy. While favored by product developers and business leaders, distributed structures can produce inconsistent information quality to customers. Centralized organizations can meet customer needs, but they are often perceived as focusing on publication quality rather than content. The best solution may be a hybrid structure that takes advantage of the strengths of both. http://tc.eserver.org/20725.html http://tc.eserver.org/20725.html Technical communication's long-time focus on task-oriented documentation has left customers with too many tasks and too much information; itï¿Âs time for a new approach. A user-centered approach reflecting a thorough understanding of users and how they engage the product is the surest route to effective documentation and training. To understand what users need, we need to get closer to them by spending time in their workplaces, watching them execute everyday tasks, and listening to them. Through this kind of ethnographic activity, we will become user experts, gaining credibility within our own organizations and our user communities. http://tc.eserver.org/20723.html http://tc.eserver.org/20723.html Strategic planning, the process of determining where you intend to be and how you’re going to get there, is absolutely essential to the success of any organization. But our assessment of the information development community indicates that the majority of organizations, whether operating as standalone businesses or as internal functions within larger companies, do little or no strategic planning. One of the main reasons is that they don’t know what strategic planning is, why it’s important, or how to do it. http://tc.eserver.org/20309.html http://tc.eserver.org/20309.html Is there a 'best' way to organize technical publications? One central organization? Many small organizations per business unit? Communicators distributed through the development teams? Discuss the pros and cons of organizational structure and its relationship to quality. http://tc.eserver.org/19916.html http://tc.eserver.org/19916.html In this interactive session, attendees will practice their skills in interviewing users, creating task scenarios from the users’ perspective, and turning the task scenarios into designs for information products. http://tc.eserver.org/19887.html http://tc.eserver.org/19887.html Since 1994, I have continued to develop and test the Five-Level Process Maturity Model. The model has been validated with a number of publications organizations. As a result, the assessment questionnaire is complete, and an assessment process is in place. I have isolated eight significant characteristics that help the publications organization efficient and effective in meeting user and customer needs. http://tc.eserver.org/19820.html http://tc.eserver.org/19820.html Many technical communicators are assuming new roles as usability specialists or are doing user analysis, task analysis, and usability testing for their own documents. Many others would like to start disability testing. In this open discussion session, you can ask questions and share experiences with a panel of four technical communicators/usability specialists and with other conference attendees. http://tc.eserver.org/18896.html http://tc.eserver.org/18896.html Your output requirements will drive many of your decisions when selecting a content-management system. An abbreviated version of the checklist from JoAnn Hackos’s book, Content Management for Dynamic Delivery, follows to aid you in defining your output requirements. http://tc.eserver.org/18832.html http://tc.eserver.org/18832.html These focus groups continue the dialogue begun in focus groups organized by Ken Rainey and Katherine Staples, Education and Research PIC, at the 1993 annual conference in Dallas. Participants discussed the topic of how partnerships among the Society, business and industry, and colleges and universitates could strengthen academic programs in technical communication, empower the profession, and promote research. http://tc.eserver.org/14610.html http://tc.eserver.org/14610.html This article is one of two cover stories detailing trends in technical communication 2000. JoAnn Hackos predicts that technical communication will move from a 'cottage' industry--one that is dominated by independent craftspeople with a personal vision of their product--to a corporate industry. To survive in this team-oriented, cost-effective environment, Hackos suggests that technical communicators take note of some of the trends guiding the profession from a cottage to a corporate industry: http://tc.eserver.org/14512.html http://tc.eserver.org/14512.html This panel repeats the form of our popular panel from the 40th STC annual conference. We enjoy presenting some of the guidelines we have been developing from our years of experience watching the performance of usability test subjects. This year we repeat the theme with new topics from our recent research and a concentration on documentation guidelines. http://tc.eserver.org/14528.html http://tc.eserver.org/14528.html If we look at many publications organizations today, we find many examples of process gone awry. Deadlines are routinely missed, original schedules are considered impossible, little or no planning occurs, plans that are written are ignored, project management is virtually unknown, and writers madly write and rewrite until someone blows the whistle and insists that the whole mess be shipped to the unwitting customers. This scenario is so common that many technical communicators hardly believe any other is possible. http://tc.eserver.org/13591.html http://tc.eserver.org/13591.html An Information Model provides the framework for organizing your content so that it can be delivered and reused in a variety of innovative ways. Once you have created an Information Model for your content repository, you will be able to label information in ways that will enhance search and retrieval, making it possible for authors and users to find the information resources they need quickly and easily. http://tc.eserver.org/10332.html http://tc.eserver.org/10332.html Strategic planning is no longer an option for an information-development organization that hopes to survive and thrive in the current climate of downsizing and outsourcing. Information developers must prove their value to their products and their organizations and demonstrate that they are aligned with corporate goals and objectives. Use strategic planning both as a tool to improve your organization and as a sign that you are willing to look closely at the old and comfortable ways of working and make significant quality and process improvements.