Getting It Together: Creating Procedure Guides for Chapter Officers and Managers  

The Rochester Chapter developed a set of Procedure Guides for officers and managers. The project was generated by a need to describe management tasks in order to recruit members for chapter positions, and to aid officers and managers in doing their jobs. This session demonstrates how other chapters can benefit from the Rochester Chapter's experience and develop a set of customized leadership guides.

Doremus, Jean S. and Kathleen B. Aughey. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Management>TC>STC

Getting Started in the Expert System Development Game  

To dispel some of the myths of Expert Systems and explain their rise as a new documentation tool in the computer industry today, we offer this historical and current market overview.

Lohmann, Joan F., Lory Hawkes, Margot B. Casey and Elinor L. Knodel. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Knowledge Management>Programming

Getting Started on an Online Project with Cognetics’ Design Methodology  

Many electronic documentation projects fail because usability and interface design are not included in the initial project definition and integrated into the process. The Cognetics Design Methodology is an approach to project planning that places the user at the center of the design. Whether you are just getting started on your first project or looking for ways to make your work better, the Cognetics Design Methodology can help you produce high quality work. This workshop will focus on the initial project definition steps, and is intended to give participants practical experience in the difficult task of getting a project off the ground.

Quesenbery, Whitney. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Project Management>Online

Getting Started with Blogging Software

We reviewed and compared the seven tools most frequently used to create a blog. Which are easiest to get up and running, or to tailor to match your site? Which has the best comment moderation features? Reporting functionality? We'll give you all the details and recommend a tool for you.

IdealWare (2006). Articles>Content Management>Software>Blogging

Getting Started with Performance Management  

What are some ways to effectively track and manage a group’s performance? Wiley examines a way to do so using specific requirements designed to measure the success of an STC SIG.

Wiley, Ann L. Intercom (2006). Articles>Project Management>Collaboration>Methods

Getting the Ear of Your CEO

Communication professionals can and should have frequent, direct access to and influence on executive leadership. Your CEO needs you, but are you ready? It is a misperception that CEOs are too busy, uninterested or unreceptive. While some communicators have close contact with executives, many other communication professionals rarely see the CEO and may have many layers of management between themselves and that "C-level" suite. But you don't have to report directly to the CEO to get his or her ear.

Gayeski, Diane. Communication World Bulletin (2003). Articles>Business Communication>Management>Collaboration

Goal-Directed Content Management

Anecdotal evidence from within the CM industry indicates that CM implementations fail to meet corporate expectations about half of the time. Part of the reason for missed expectations could be poor usability.

Fore, David. Cooper Interaction Design (2002). Articles>Content Management>Usability

Going On-Line: Bringing Technical Reports To The Desktop  

Information management is moving quickly toward archiving and retrieving documents electronically, so Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is taking steps to help its research staff create electronic documents. Declining budgets frequently dictate that authors handle the technicalities of getting published as well as the scientific and technical information that they publish. To help the Laboratory benefit from being the leader in this area, ORNL’s Information Management Section formed a multidisciplinary team to develop, pilot, and implement a Webbased process to register and clear technical documents and to add the full text of these documents to the Laboratory’s Comprehensive Publications and Presentations Registry (CPPR). Making this happen required implementing policy changes to address the new performance measure, acquiring software needed for file conversion, developing Web guidance, and providing training and consulting for ORNL staff.

Dole, Jeanne, David Hamrin and Rebecca Lawson. OSTI. Articles>Content Management>Reports

Going Online: A Case Study in the Development and Implementation of Netscape NetHelp  

Computerized Medical Systems, Inc. (CMS) - the worldâ*™s leading radiation therapy planning (RTP) company with over 1000 installed RTP systems and over 400 installed dosimetry systems - decided in late 1996 to move existing FOCUS documentation online. Reasons for this included: the existing documentation set perceived as too difficult to use; increasing printing cost; and customer feedback. Using Netscape NetHelp as a basis, the CMS documentation staff reduced printed documentation size by two-thirds while making the information more accessible. Reactions to FOCUSHelp have been highly favorable. Future plans include migrating to the NetHelp2 framework and reducing topic lengths.

Rupel, Roberta A., Ellard Douglas, Bill Bledsoe and Frank Watson. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Content Management>Documentation>Help

Good Money After Bad

Many software projects that suffer a lingering death should have been canceled much earlier. Although it is hard to pull the plug on a project with a weak business case, failing to do so does throw good money after bad. Karl Wiegers gives some tips on decision making that can help you avoid this outcome. Karl also shows how to use decision points to keep a good project moving along.

Wiegers, Karl E. StickyMinds (2002). Articles>Project Management

Graphic Designer Needs a Web CMS

While you can create very powerful content management solutions with most open-source packages -- they have a much steeper learning curve than you experienced with HTML or Flash.

Byrne, Tony. CMSworks (2004). Articles>Content Management>Graphic Design

A Guide for Software Project Managers - Planning User Documentation

A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide)–2000 Edition is the main sourcebook in the project management field. Whilst it covers Project Communications Management, it doesn't extend to user documentation. This article seeks to provide guidance for project managers as to how the user documentation process fits in with the overall project planning. It examines: the traditional way documentation is approached and how it impinges on project planning the effects of making changes to this traditional approach.

Johnston, Carol. Cherryleaf (2003). Articles>Documentation>Project Management>Body of Knowledge

“Hand It To Them On A Silver Platter: Meeting Researchers Needs In The Electronic Age”  

This paper describes the Electronic Resource Library (ERL) at http://plutonium-erl.actx.edu. This is a web-based, subject-oriented digital library on the topic of plutonium and its ancillary disciplines. Previous research analyzing differences in the information-seeking behavior of scientists and engineers is reviewed and lessons learned applied to this digital library model. Special consideration has been given to recommendations in the SATCOM report from the National Academy of Sciences/National Academy of Engineering Committee on Scientific and Technical Communication. This report strongly advocated the development of “specialized need-groupservices” to support the work of the engineer and practitioner.

Ruddy, Karen. OSTI (1999). Articles>Content Management>Web Design

Hands-on XML and Round Trip HTML for Technical Communicators  

XML can simplify production of documents for print, help and web delivery. It can make document components reusable, portable between platforms and easier to maintain. XML also has a dark side. Parts of the standard are turbulent, vendors are rushing XML products to market that are not fully standard-compliant, implementation requires careful planning, and porting of legacy documents to XML is not trivial. Technical communicators can prosper by identifying the parts of XML that can be implemented immediately, by preparing documents to exploit support for XML available in new versions of Microsoft Word and Adobe FrameMaker, and by using hybrid HTML/XML for document delivery.

Reichman, Katriel. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing>XML

Happy Birthday Communiqué

Provides a recap of how the online, wiki-based Carolina Communique evolved and won an Award of Excellence in the Newsletters: Web & Online category of the 2008 APEX Awards for Publication Excellence

Sapir, Rick. Carolina Communique (2008). Articles>Content Management>Newsletters>Wikis

Hat Heads vs. Bed Heads

Calm tension, communicate more easily, and run your projects more efficiently by applying the right relationship management techniques.

LaFerriere, Keith. List Apart, A (2007). Articles>Management>Collaboration

Hats Off to Your Own Web Business

Sahil Parikh built and runs his web app DeskAway a world away in Mumbai, India. In this article he shares some of the things he’s learned and hats he’s worn while creating his successful and profitable web app business.

Parikh, Sahil. Vitamin (2008). Articles>Management>Web Design>E Commerce

HBS Cases: How Wikipedia Works (or Doesn't)

An ongoing tension within Wikipedia is characterized as the inclusionists versus the exclusionists. The inclusionists argue that one of Wikipedia's core values is that it should be open to all ideas, that truth emerges from a variety of directions. Better to include than exclude. The exclusionists see Wikipedia's utilitarianism diminished if too much froth clouds the valuable information inside. These people delete material they consider inappropriate. The case offers students a chance to understand issues such as how online cultures are made and maintained, the power of self-policing organizations, the question of whether the service is drifting from its core principles, and whether a Wikipedia-like concept can work in a business setting.

Silverthorne, Sean. Harvard University (2007). Articles>Knowledge Management>Policies and Procedures>Wikis

The Hidden Relationship Between Project Managers and Technical Writers  

Want to know the secret to better quality documentation and improved software design? Will Kelly outlines how the key is an effective relationship between project managers and technical writers.

Kelly, William T. TechRepublic (2003). Articles>Collaboration>Project Management>Technical Writing

The High Cost of Not Finding Information  

In an increasingly information-based world, we turn out complex products that are less tangible than they are knowledge-based. The very complexity of the decisions we make and the products we manufacture makes it impossible to check, test and retest them adequately enough to be sure that they will function properly in any circumstance. Information disasters are a growing threat, and one that few businesses can ignore.

Feldman, Susan. KMworld (2004). Articles>Knowledge Management>Information Design>Search

The High Cost of Quality

Quality Systems (QS) have become essential for (inter-)national competition. Companies spend large amounts of money for 'measuring' quality defined by national and international standards. Quality, however, is a value, and like creeds and ideologies values cannot be measured with scientific exactness and are difficult to control. Total Quality Management (TQM) and other standardized concepts take that idealistic dimension into account. Certification according to ISO 9000, for instance, covers only about 50% of a TQM implementation.

Bock, Gabriele. TC-FORUM (1998). Articles>Project Management>Quality>Standards

High-Cost Usability Sometimes Makes Sense

Computing the net present value (NPV) lets you estimate the most profitable level of usability investment. For big projects, expensive usability can pay off.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2007). Articles>Usability>Project Management>Planning

History of the Vision

The goal of having a comprehensive collection of science information easily available to researchers and students has been expressed repeatedly for decades. These reports reiterate that our concept of a comprehensive collection of information has been attractive to the physical science community for decades.

OSTI (1999). Articles>Content Management>Scientific Communication

Homer's Odyssey  

In this offbeat presentation, Jean compares the impediments and obstacles encountered by an Agile mentor with those detailed in Homer's classical reference. Through the presentation and dialogue, you will discover who plays which classical roles in an organization's effort to adopt Agile practices: Cyclops, the Sirens, Poseidon, Circe, Cicones, the Lotus-Eaters, and even the good-and-faithful dog Argus.

Tabaka, Jean. Rally Software Development (2006). Articles>Project Management>Agile