Juggling or Struggling: The Art of Managing Online and Hardcopy Documentation  

While company budgets are increasing little or none, the responsibilities of technical writers continue to multiply as they are expected to produce online help as well as hard-copy documentation in short time periods. This demonstration explains how technical writers at Computer Power, Inc. produce usable online and hard-copy documentation from one source file. Participants will learn how to plan the file, create appropriate graphics, and use macros to convert text and other information for use in online help.

Bates, Michael P. and Catherine Cooper. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Documentation>Project Management

Manage the Document Life Cycle for the Important Documents on Your Project  

Not all documents require a full lifecycle, but if you understand the nature of building documents, you will be better able to plan for the time required to complete them successfully.

Mochal, Tom. TechRepublic (2005). Articles>Project Management>Documentation

Managing a Company-Wide Policies and Procedures Project  

It takes skills in three different areas to manage a company-wide policy and procedures project. First, people must be organized and motivated to participate. Executive support is critical here. And the persons actually performing the tasks must be the ones to document it. Second, the project must be clearly defined and tracked. The document creation and review process must be structured simply, to take full advantage of the documentation team’s limited time. Finally, the information published must be accurate and controlled. Work processes should be analyzed before the procedures are documented, and published procedures must be distributed to specified manual holders.

Creps, William B. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Project Management>Documentation>Policies and Procedures

Managing and Documenting Your Project, XML Style

Here are links to the listings described in Managing and Documenting Your Project XML Style.

Fisher, Timothy. XML Journal (2003). Articles>Documentation>Project Management>XML

Managing Documentation Projects in an International Environment: The Supervisor's Role  

The technical publications department of a major corporation is always a complex environment. When this environment also involves dealing with the issues of an international company and almost daily interaction with international counterparts, the opportunities and challenges are greatly increased. Joining a large-scale, ongoing publications project under these conditions requires quick learning and the rapid acquisition of new skills. For a project of this type to succeed, a supervisor must successfully solve a unique set of problems and is rewarded with enhanced opportunities for growth and professional development.

Chapman, Stephen C. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Documentation>Management>International

Managing SMEs - Part 1: A Primer for Success

Just the thought of dealing with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) can create stress in the life of any documentation manager. Philip Rastocny provides in-depth insight on how best to deal with SMEs.

Rastocny, Philip. Writing Assistance (2006). Articles>Management>Documentation>SMEs

Managing Your Documentation Monster: Project Management for the 90's  

If you've ever had trouble figuring out what your boss wants or needs, and how to deliver the project in a timely manner, this is the demonstration for you! From a nuts and bolts approach to developing an iron clad project plan, to managing the process and marching the completed project in a timely and professional manner, this demonstration covers a lot of ground in a short time. Tips, tricks, and checklists will be available to each attendee.

Glick-Smith, Judith L. and Karen A. Steele. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Documentation>Project Management

Review: Managing your Documentation Projects    

Documentation projects require a significant amount of coordination and planning, and managers often find themselves faced with the challenge of successfully integrating a range of new elements including international legal requirements, new players, budgets and scheduling demands to make a product successful. Most often they look around for solutions to develop an effective strategy for their documentation projects that places control in their hands.

Kudesia, Saurabh. International Journal for Technical Communication (2006). Articles>Reviews>Documentation>Project Management

Meaningful Microcontent

Microcontent refers to small, granular, and possibly representative (that can provide a summary of or a navigation to a larger set of information) bits of information, typically available on the Web. An example in the domain of journalism might be headlines and news summaries, small bits of content that can be used on a front page of the news with links to more in-depth articles. The definition has grown in scope as much as in its application.

Albing, Bill. KeyContent.org (2006). Articles>Documentation>Content Management>Technical Writing

Meeting Crazy Deadlines

We are all against bonded labour and slavery. I ask you: are software professionals (including technical writers), better off than slaves and bonded labourers?

Kamath, Gurudutt R. IT People (2003). Articles>Documentation>Project Management

Moving Legacy Documentation into DITA: An Interview

JoAnn Hackos, content management and information design expert, gives her best advice on what organizations need to know about moving legacy documentation to DITA.

Hackos, JoAnn T. Data Conversion Laboratory (2007). Articles>Documentation>Content Management

The New World of Product Labeling: Alternative Architectures and Approaches  

A discussion of the shift to structured content in pharmaceutical product labeling, which builds upon SPL and PIM regulations and the fundamental concepts of enterprise content management.

Glemser Technologies (2005). Articles>Content Management>Documentation>Biomedical

Planning for Factors That Affect Project Cost  

Documentation projects often change to respond to changes or obstacles in the system development process. Sometimes, these changes increase project costs. However, as corporate budgets tighten, project managers are frequently asked to work within their original estimates despite the changes. To minimize these situations, project managers need to identify the factors that can increase the costs of a project, evaluate the chances of problems arising, and adapt the work plan and estimate to anticipate the problems that are outside of their control.

Fredrickson, Lola and Joyce Lasecke. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Documentation>Management>Estimating

Quality Time: How Good Documentation Cuts Development Costs  

Discusses several ways project managers can control the sometimes-chaotic process of documentation development.

Woodcock, Gill. Intercom (2001). Articles>Management>Documentation

Relative Costs of Paper and Online Documentation

This article compares the costs of development, production and maintenance for paper and online documentation.

Unwalla, Mike. TechScribe (2003). Articles>Documentation>Management

Restructuring Your User Information  

Details a process for improving the usability, consistency, and organization of user information within businesses that maintain medium to large documentation libraries.

Richards, Charles. Intercom (2003). Articles>Content Management>Documentation>Usability

The Return on Investment of Documentation and Support

The benefits of user documentation (reduced support calls, increase in the perceived value of the product, happier customers, better customer retention, increase product usage etc) can be identified, but it can be hard to measure them and accurately quantify the Return on Investment.

Pratt, Ellis. Cherryleaf (2008). Articles>Documentation>Management

Sarbanes-Oxley and Financial Accountability

In the financial documentation realm, there are so many new buzz words, but they all boil down to the documentation equivalent of bean counting.

Albing, Bill. KeyContent.org (2004). Articles>Documentation>Management

The Six Biggest Mistakes Project Managers Make with Documentation and How to Avoid Them

Professional business writers, such as technical authors, typically break a document down into small, discrete units of information, organised around a skeleton of topic headings. If you use this 'component' or 'modular' approach, you can plan and structure the document using the heading 'labels' that describe each section.

Pratt, Ellis. Cherryleaf (2007). Articles>Documentation>Planning>Project Management

Structured Document Processors: Customizing Software to Control Document Development Processes  

Structured document processors (SDPS) enable companies to make document production more efficient and accurate, while improving reliability of documents that must be updated frequently or written to very strict format standards. Achieving these goals requires elaborate and highly technical customization of the SDP. This paper emphasizes the importance of collaboration in customizing SDPS to particular document development processes. Three case histories illustrate the spectrum of ways industry is using SDPS for writing, showing three different approaches to customizing SDPS.

Norman, Rose L. and Daryl A. Grider. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Content Management>Documentation

Teamwork and the Product Documentation Process

Get to know your new teammates. Get to know your audience. Define the product's features. Create a mockup of the user interface. Begin to document the features and interface.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Geoff-Hart.com (1997). Articles>Documentation>Project Management>Collaboration

Ten Rules for Bad Development

here are advantages to being a bad development manager. For one thing, you don’t stand out from the crowd; most development managers are pretty bad. For another thing, bad development managers have a knack for getting promoted in the face of all evidence to the contrary. With mediocrity as the norm, bad development managers have an edge: nobody expects much of them. Perhaps best of all, bad development managers don’t have to do a lot of original thinking. This article identifies the 10 most common things that bad development managers know in their bones. If you follow all 10 of these rules, you’ll be able to hold your head up as the baddest of the bad.

Hedtke, John. IEEE PCS (2005). Articles>Project Management>Documentation

TQM Case Study: Time-Cost-Productivity Improvements for a Documentation Department  

This data- and process-driven presentation describes how Total Quality Management (TQM) saved a company $2-to-$3 million in printing costs over a four-year period, reduced cycle time by fifty percent, and increased productivity three hundred percent.

Jandel-Leavitt, Juliette. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Documentation>Management

Using Downtime Effectively as the Deadline Approaches  

Technical communicators are often expected to write manuals and Help systems concurrently with programmers as they develop the product. While this helps ensure the documentation is ready when a product is released, it also creates some headaches for the writer. Many of the features that must be documented aren't functional until late in the development cycle. The writer must then wait for the features to be completed, while anxiously watching the deadline grow nearer. Fortunately, by keeping a sharp eye on planning and making advance preparations, the writer can minimize the effects of the unavoidable, last-minute rush to the finish.

Danda, Matthew. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>Documentation>Project Management