Managing Multiple Deliverables with a Small Staff  

Managing multiple deliverables with a small staff is a discipline unto itself, different from those departments where each writer has specific responsibilities. In this environment, each member is required to have multiple skills and the flexibility to jump from one project to the next quickly. Because of the demands, heavy training costs are often incurred, and the involvement of other departments is mandatory, all of which makes management support essential. It is an exhilarating, often exhausting environment, but the rewards are multiple skills, a wide variety of assignments, and the satisfaction of being part of a tightly-knit, highly-productive team.

Beadle, Diane. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Collaboration>Workflow

Software Documentation Process - McGraw-Hill School Systems  

This panel presents the software documentation processes of three companies. At McGraw-Hill School Systems, the technical writers are involved in every stage of the software development life cycle. This approach ensures that writers are always in control of the information they need and that sufficient time is available for the documentation process. Our involvement allows us to produce high-quality documentation that is up-to-date with the software’s functionality.

Rogers, Anne E. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Documentation>Workflow>Collaboration

Tasks and Operational Areas of Technical Illustrators

Technical illustrators are the link between the design engineer and the user. An illustrator is able to visualize technical issues in orientation to a specific target group and to prepare them for various media. This article will address how they do this, where their operational areas are, what tools they use, and what you can expect of a technical illustrator.

Kahl, Gabi. ITEDO Software (2002). Articles>Collaboration>Workflow>Technical Illustration

Teambuilding Insights from the Newsroom

To the uninitiated, a newsroom on deadline may seem more like a scene of chaos than a smoothly functioning team. Having spent the early part of my career in newsrooms and the rest in corporate settings, I can say that the closest I have ever come to the high-performing teams executives struggle to create has been in the world of daily news.

Dunsavage, Jeff. Communication World Bulletin (2006). Articles>Collaboration>Journalism>Workflow

Technical Assistance for Writers in the Workplace: Some Heuristic Uses of Professional Writing Techniques in a Multiauthor Writing Process     

Linda Flower's work serves as the basis for devising writing technical assistance in three case studies of multiauthor reports. One major barrier to audience-based writing, planning—and, hence, producing readable text—is the writer-based structure embodied in a project's work program. Writing technical assistance can help displace this structure by various means, including collaborative writing. But the interaction between the two activities basic to writing—creating specific audience-based goals and devising a new hierarchical structure for content knowledge—remains unclear in theory and in practice.

Baker, Linda. Technical Communication Online (1996). Articles>Collaboration>Workflow>Writing

Technical Communication as Business Strategy: How Changes in Discursive Patterns Affect the Value of Technical Communication in Cross-Functional Team Settings    

Business seldom views technical communicators' contributions as offering strategic thinking and services. Companies tend to view technical communicators as tactical and technical, rather than strategic and creative. Consequently, often in cross-functional development settings the ideas and recommendations of technical communicators are not valued in the same way that ideas from business strategists, marketing, or other fields are. This paper details a case study in which the role of an information architect, a title that more and more technical communicators use to describe themselves, becomes valued by a design firm's client and by the firm itself as strategic business advantage. I explain why the role of the information architect increased in value and how the increased value changed the job description. I look at how blending knowledge occurs through shifts in terminology, imitation of another field, and selling new concepts.

Norton, David W. Technical Communication Online (2000). Articles>Collaboration>Workflow

The Technical Communicator's Role in Initiating Cross-Functional Teams    

This article focuses on cross-functional teams in software development environments. While very formal approaches to cross-functional teams exist, this article focuses on less formal approaches based on existing literature and case studies. Technical communicators are ideal candidates for implementing cross-functional teams on an informal level. Because of this, they can also be excellent catalysts for initiating formal cross-functional approaches in their organizations, even if their organizations have never used cross-functional teams before.

Marchwinski, Theresa and Karen Mandziuk. Technical Communication Online (2000). Articles>Collaboration>Workflow

Project Management, Critical Praxis, and Process-Oriented Approach to Teamwork    

To help alleviate issues of free-riding and conflicts in team projects, this study proposes the systematic incorporation of project management methods to introduce a process-oriented approach to and a critical praxis in team projects. We examined how the systematic use of project management methods influenced students' performance in team projects. The findings demonstrate that such an approach enables the documentation and evaluation of and reflection on both individual and team work. Our findings indicate that project management tools enhance team member accountability and help reduce free-riding.

Ding, Huiling and Xin Ding. Business Communication Quarterly (2008). Articles>Project Management>Collaboration>Workflow