While the field of usability has existed for decades, the number and quality of careers in the field have greatly improved in the last 10-15 years. The long-term prognosis for the industry is good: there are constant opportunities in almost every industry since new products and technology come out all the time, in usability as well as user-centered design, interaction design and user experience design.
#23033
Management Activities for Achieving Organizational Change and Improvement 
Viewing your documentation or training group as a business entity is an important first step toward enabling organizational change and improvement. The actual business status of your organization - a company unto itself a profit center in a larger company, or a cost center in a larger company - matters not. It’s your view of things that will put you on the road to operating your group as a business.
Currie, Cynthia C. and Thomas J. Vallone. STC Proceedings (1996). Careers>Documentation>Management
#15163
Management Guidelines for Alternative Work Schedules
Offers guidance to managers on how to balance the needs of their businesses with the convenience of alternative work schedules, such as telecommuting, flextime, job sharing, compressed work weeks, and reduced hours.
#24416
Management in the nineties is a challenging task. From managing technologies that didn't exist five years ago to constantly being asked to do more with less, managers are freed with a formidable set of obstacles and challenges.
See, Edward J.P. STC Proceedings (1994). Careers>Management>Technology
#29366
The Management Track Requires Special Skills and Experience 
Moving into management is tempting to many IT pros. But before jumping into a position you're not ready for, there are a few issues you need to examine. Review these five steps and decide if you're prepared to move successfully into management nirvana.
Sisco, Michael. TechRepublic (2003). Careers>Management
#22886
Management and leadership have been partners in the successes and failures of countries and companies before the start of recorded history. The basic concepts of both are well understood but despite a large amount of information available, there is still confusion and disagreement on the implementation of management skills vs. leadership principles. Successful creation of a professional development program is dependant on the recognition that technical/management skills are learned abilities, they are the backbone of the companies core capabilities. These capabilities must be augmented with leadership attributes that allow the team to move forward in implementation of the core business.
Fay, Dan. STC Proceedings (1997). Careers>Management
#30373
A Manager's Toolkit for Hiring the Right Writer-Or How to Avoid Throwing a Wrench into the Works
Economic concerns require hiring writers (contract, freelance, and permanent) quickly and surely. Employers can make better use of the resume and interview processes to hire the right writer. In this workshop, managers will analyze resume and participate in a mock-interview process. Further, they will learn how to assess job candidates using four screening tools developed by the presenters in a three-step process designed to provide a means of consistently making the most appropriate selections for job openings.
Sopensky, Emily A. and Laurie Modrey. STC Proceedings (1993). Careers>Management>Interviewing
#14596
Manager's Toolkit: How to Report the Status of a Project
As you develop the communication product, your client and the team of people working with you will be interested in the progress of your work. To inform them, regularly publish a progress report. The progress report offers many benfits. It anticipates your client’s need for information about an in-progress project, makes the team aware of changes to the original plans and situations that could cause problems before those situations become problems, and maintains the common vision for the project that you painstakingly created when you developed plans of the information design. Most likely, you will publish the the report weekly or bi-weekly. Let your client determine the exact frequency; when your client approves your information designs, ask how frequently the client would prefer a progress report.
Carliner, Saul. STC (1999). Careers>Management>Reports
#29348
Managers Should Adopt a Technical Mentor
You may not have the time to read or the money to burn on analysts' reports, but adopting a technical mentor can help you keep your skills fresh. Here are the pros and cons of making the move.
Osborn, Matthew. TechRepublic (2003). Careers>Management>Technology>Collaboration
#18533
Managers Weigh In: Perspectives on Current Issues
A report on discussions with several managers of technical communicators about current issues in the field, including changes in hiring practices, telecommuting, and tools and techniques for project management.
Lange, Penny L. Intercom (2003). Careers>Management
#18534
Managers: Move from Silos to Channels
Advocates restructuring technical communication departments to eliminate 'silos'—isolated groups within the department—and develop 'channels'—a cooperative grouping of workers and teams through which information about a product can flow.
Hughes, Michael A. Intercom (2003). Careers>Management>Collaboration
#27871
Managing a team of employees who are located around the world can be challenging. Discover how to efficiently and effectively work to create the highest level of output.
Damrau, Jackie. Intercom (2006). Careers>Management>Project Management>Offshoring
#14680
Langhoff discusses the advantages and disadvantages of the growing practice of telecommuting, and issues that managers face when their staffs telecommute.
Langhoff, June. Intercom (2001). Careers>Telecommuting
#20094
Managing Career Enrichment for Technical Writers
This paper explores how technical publications managers can create a department that provides career enriching opportunities and direction for technical communicators. The paper describes in detail four major ways: by providing training opportunities, by providing diverse assignments, by allowing participation in management issues, and by providing customer contact. The paper describes the benefits of each enriching opportunity to the technical communicator and to the manager.
Krasner, Arlene J. STC Proceedings (1997). Careers>Management>Writing>Technical Writing
#20093
When meeting someone for the first time, you get about 10 seconds to make a good impression; make it a good one!
Steele, Karen A. STC Proceedings (1997). Careers>Consulting>Communication
#28371
Managing Conflicts within a Team of Writers
As much as you may try to avoid it, conflict among your employees is bound to rear its ugly head from time to time. While you may not be able to resolve all conflicts, with the right approach, you can manage many of them.
Prabhakar, Rahul. Intercom (2006). Careers>Management>Writing>Technical Writing
#27977
Managing Conflicts within a Team of Writers
It is quite challenging for a manager to integrate a diverse group of intelligent and creative professionals into a single, cohesive unit. As much as you may try to avoid it, conflict among your employees is bound to rear its ugly head from time to time.
Prabhakar, Rahul. Blogspot (2006). Careers>Management>Writing>Technical Writing
#19888
Managing International Projects: Case Studies
The Human Interface Group manages for a number of its multinational clients their international software. This discussion fits in the larger issue that more and more companies try to communicate with international clients.
Dehaes, Christel and Kris Vanstappen. STC Proceedings (1995). Careers>Management>International
#24367
Managing Legacy Employees, and Others You Didn't Hire
When you join an established department as manager, or when company policy requires you to take contractors someone else hires, you can encounter anything from exasperation to great joy. Three cases demonstrate effective techniques for working with writers you didn’t hire. From the contracted incompetent, through the terrified junior, to the competent team, the cases explore what happened, why, and the techniques used. These techniques include creative use of the basics such as planning, record-keeping, scheduling and troubleshooting. Good skills in listening and observing, are matched with clear identification of purpose and an ability to simplify.
Buchanan, Rivka. STC Proceedings (1998). Careers>Management
#20755
Managing Means Growing with Your Team
Technical communication managers are faced with common responsibilities from company to company. Typically, they are responsible for resources (people and equipment), customer relations (internal and external), product, and administration. To successfully complete these responsibilities, a manager must have people, communication, planning, technical, statistical, and financial accounting skills. While focusing on the skills necessary to meet these responsibilities, managers may loose sight of key writing skills. Well-rounded managers must stay current with their teams. They must grow for their teams to grow.
Jahnke, Jean M. STC Proceedings (1999). Careers>Management>Collaboration
#19883
Managing Quality Graphic Design in a Documentation Project
Supervising the design of documentation is challenging for documentation managers who have little or no educated knowledge of design. However, quality design that maintains ease of reading, accessibility, comprehension, retention, and aesthetics is vital to the usability and success of the documentation and should be carefully monitored by the documentation manager. Decisions must be made up front on four design areas -- packaging, layout, typography, and highlighting -- before the project is underway. In addition, audience analysis and a design style guide are two techniques that managers should embrace in supervising design.
Listeman, Amy J. STC Proceedings (1995). Careers>Graphic Design>Document Design>Documentation
#13491
An attempt to distill and disseminate key principles and practices relevant to managing scientific and technical information in environmental conflicts.
Adler, Peter, Robert Barrett, Martha Bean, Juliana Birkhoff, Connie Ozawa and Emily Rudin. Mediate.com (2002). Careers>Collaboration
#30520
Managing Technical Writers by Wandering Around
Technology has reduced the need for managers to act as communication conduits. Instead they must add more quality to the work of their employees by wandering among them. Effective wandering means forgetting the telephone, using bull sessions, becoming a fifteen-minute manager, giving employees a vision, and looking at their work.
Dicks, R. Stanley. STC Proceedings (1993). Careers>Management>Writing>Technical Writing
#13669
Managing the Client: A Fairy Tale
Remember that a successful project has a measurable and positive impact on the client's business objectives. Set a time period to measure the progress toward achieving those objectives, and plan to measure progress on a regular basis. If you find that there are adjustments that should be made, or additions that can improve the project's functionality, do them.
Cliver, Sara. Digital Web Magazine (2002). Careers>Consulting>Collaboration
#24760
Current trends in Corporate America are changing the traditional role of technical communicators and creating new challenges and opportunities. Re-engineering the corporation, Total Quality Management, ISO 9000 compliance, and the continuing onslaught of the Information Age are all bringing formally 'invisible' technical communications functions into the limelight. It's not just writing and editing any more! As communication professionals and managers we need to upgrade skills and re-focus our efforts to become 'information managers.'
Anton, Kathy and Teresa J. Tarwater. STC Proceedings (1994). Careers>Management>Documentation>Technical Writing
#29863
Managing the Monster, Managing the Zoo
Every technical communicator, whether controlling a single large project or a dozen small ones, must develop a set of management skills appropriate to the task in order to remain a qualified member of the communication team. This calls for being part diplomat, part technical expert, part salesman, and part rhinoceros.
Wise, Daniel E. and Elizabeth Bailey. STC Proceedings (2004). Careers>TC>Project Management
