categoryallspace2-Careers Management http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Careers/Management A directory of resources about careers and management 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/Careers/Management http://tc.eserver.org/31533.html http://tc.eserver.org/31533.html There are crucial behaviors important people, successful executives, and true leaders use to move processes and people forward. These behaviors are the key ingredients of leadership. The more of these ingredients leaders take to heart, teach, and expect of others, the more power they will have to achieve their objectives. http://tc.eserver.org/31546.html http://tc.eserver.org/31546.html Some people seem to thrive on change. How do they do it? How do they manage change in a way that they not only survive, but also excel? They seem to make change work for them. Here are five essentials on how to take your team through times of transition. One of the most significant essentials for success during transition is teambuilding. Leaders who can challenge, motivate and empower their teams through change are successful. http://tc.eserver.org/31433.html http://tc.eserver.org/31433.html If you work for a large corporation, you don't have to worry about who handles the invoicing, pays the bills, or manages pesky clients. But if you're a small business owner, all this quickly becomes your concern. Anecdotal evidence suggests that entrepreneurs are increasingly linking up with colleagues to work on specific projects or to create virtual agencies. http://tc.eserver.org/31434.html http://tc.eserver.org/31434.html Employee engagement is certainly one of the hottest of the hot communication topics right now. It can be easily misunderstood as a new communication fad, given the attention it’s being given these days. But the truth is that engagement—winning the hearts and minds of employees—has always been the ultimate goal of effective employee communicators. http://tc.eserver.org/31435.html http://tc.eserver.org/31435.html I remember the day I turned on the car radio and found out that my company was merging with a competitor. Over the coming weeks, every employee made mental and emotional decisions on whether to stay engaged with their work and the company, or to just to show up and collect a paycheck. http://tc.eserver.org/31436.html http://tc.eserver.org/31436.html When considering the issue of employee engagement, communicators need to know what they are dealing with. Engagement is something that plays out on an organization-wide level, so communicators should understand what an organization is. http://tc.eserver.org/31437.html http://tc.eserver.org/31437.html Engagement. Is it the latest corporate buzzword? Not for serious business leaders who understand the correlation between engaged employees and improved financial performance. They see engagement as a source of competitive advantage. All things equal, they believe, an organization that has engaged employees will outperform one that doesn’t. http://tc.eserver.org/31452.html http://tc.eserver.org/31452.html In boom times, companies can be pressured into spending lavishly to please their employees, providing a variety of perks in the belief that happy employees are productive employees. While this may be true, when leaner times come and businesses struggle to grow, the goal of employee satisfaction is put under greater scrutiny. Today, investments in employee-related plans and programmes must do more than satisfy employees. They must be able to provide a measurable return on investment. http://tc.eserver.org/31463.html http://tc.eserver.org/31463.html We’ve all heard stories about people who clicked “send” too soon. But here’s a story you may not have heard. One of our clients described an e-mail message he recently received from upper management at his company. The message had some information about how to request annual leave and plans to landscape the building. The message ended with these words: “By the way, you have a new boss. The product development team’s new director will be James Yang. Margie Esposito, the former director, left last Friday.” Obviously, the cardinal rule of using e-mail as a management tool is “know when to use e-mail.” Some messages, like a sudden change in upper management, should be delivered in person. http://tc.eserver.org/31390.html http://tc.eserver.org/31390.html The announcement ads are everywhere-in magazines, in newspapers and on television. Hundreds of companies, large and small, change their names every year. The Wall Street Journal reports that some 400 to 800 annually make a name change, and these numbers don't include the thousands more that only consider such a move. Why is it that so many corporations are reassessing their names? What spurs them to undertake a procedure that is often painfully emotional, and, in all cases, is time consuming? http://tc.eserver.org/31391.html http://tc.eserver.org/31391.html In the customer's mind, your brand is forever being weighed, measured, compared and tested. To ensure its continued vitality and effectiveness, refresh and reaffirm your brand on a routine basis. The question is: How can you breathe new life into your old brand without reinventing the wheel or busting your budget? Think tagline. http://tc.eserver.org/31279.html http://tc.eserver.org/31279.html I never had trouble spotting a bad boss—until I would look in a mirror. My hair might have been combed, and my teeth nice and clean, but something was still wrong on the inside—and I didn't see it. In other areas of my professional development, I've been able to treat mistakes and bad decisions as "learning opportunities." The mistakes and bad decisions that I've made as a supervisor or manager haven't been as easy for me to forgive—because it really hurts to hurt people. http://tc.eserver.org/31280.html http://tc.eserver.org/31280.html While an internal communication audit is enormously valuable, many communicators don't know when one is needed, how it's done or what to do with the results. In fact, communicators who may in the end buy an audit are those who initially call for help wrestling with core communication issues. They want information and informal benchmarking, but they ask questions that foreshadow an audit. http://tc.eserver.org/31282.html http://tc.eserver.org/31282.html Traditionally, a communication audit serves as an assessment of past performance, where the report of results highlight the strengths and weaknesses of internal communication. Based on this analysis, the communication department must determine where to invest its time and resources in the future. http://tc.eserver.org/31283.html http://tc.eserver.org/31283.html The communication audit has become a popular tool to measure audience satisfaction with the content and packaging of information. Typically, these audits are designed as surveys and/or focus groups that solicit reactions to important elements of the way that communication is managed, such as choice of media, relevance of topics, frequency and timing of publications and meetings, and the workplace climate. http://tc.eserver.org/31285.html http://tc.eserver.org/31285.html What quality do employees most want from business leaders? A clear vision of the way ahead, perhaps? A charismatic leadership style? Political or business acumen? Of course, we demand all those qualities in leaders. But a recent piece of research points to a different quality as being the top priority for many employees. http://tc.eserver.org/31256.html http://tc.eserver.org/31256.html With corporate raiders, financial analysts and institutional investors all demanding "performance, performance, performance," CEOs are looking for creative communication executives who can help show that the direction they are taking the enterprise is guaranteed to increase shareholder value. http://tc.eserver.org/31162.html http://tc.eserver.org/31162.html Nowadays, outsourcing seems to be a de facto approach in the IT industry. As a part of the software development process, it seems reasonable to consider technical writing as a candidate for outsourcing. Through this article, I propose to explore the pros, cons, risks, and opportunities for outsourcing your technical documentation. http://tc.eserver.org/31076.html http://tc.eserver.org/31076.html A no-nonsense approach to finding a great tech writer, even when you don't know what to look for. http://tc.eserver.org/30612.html http://tc.eserver.org/30612.html The purpose of this workshop is to introduce attendees to Total Quality Management (TQM) techniques and practices. TQM offers common-sense guidance in the quest for quality. Using the example of an out-of-control technical review cycle, the workshop shows attendees how to better manage the technical review process, resulting in accurate, high-quality documents. http://tc.eserver.org/30615.html http://tc.eserver.org/30615.html Organizations can do many things to vitalize their people. The Information Development organization at the IBM Corporation in Cary, NC, uses a closed-loop process in which we evaluate employee satisfaction, identify problems, and attempt to correct the problems (then reevaluate and so on). Your organization too can use this process to improve your employees' participation, involvement in your quality program, and morale. http://tc.eserver.org/30556.html http://tc.eserver.org/30556.html Since most employees-turned-entrepreneurs have little formal training in finance, they may be less than confident about how to ensure that their finances are in order. Frick shares some of her experiences in learning how to manage her finances for her business. http://tc.eserver.org/30520.html http://tc.eserver.org/30520.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/30525.html http://tc.eserver.org/30525.html This paper presents some of the challenges and approaches to dealing with corporate downsizing, both from a management and personal viewpoint. It identifies some behavioral characteristics of people experiencing stress due to job instability. In addition, it gives some suggestions for managing your own stress and helping your employees through difficult times. http://tc.eserver.org/30460.html http://tc.eserver.org/30460.html It's important to be able to distinguish between workaholics and people who are simply wrapped up in their work--either because they enjoy it so much or because, temporarily, they have decided to make it a priority to win a promotion or attain the kind of lifestyle that they want. For a workaholic, work is the end, not the means. While it may bring wealth or power, what matters most is simply working. Just as alcoholics drink because they must--not always because they enjoy it--so a workaholic is addicted to working even when there is no rational reason for doing so. http://tc.eserver.org/30456.html http://tc.eserver.org/30456.html Thailand, India, Taiwan, China, and pretty much every other country in the vicinity with an economy worth talking about, is facing heavy capital inflows. In spite of the Rupee appreciation vis-a-vis the dollar, foreign capital inflows have been on the rise. http://tc.eserver.org/30373.html http://tc.eserver.org/30373.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/30334.html http://tc.eserver.org/30334.html This two-part article looks at the comparative costs of employees versus independent contractors, helps you to classify workers as either independent contractors or employees, and (in the second part) will examine the consequences of misclassification as it affects clients, independent contractors, and third party payers (such as a consulting firm or a contract agency). http://tc.eserver.org/30336.html http://tc.eserver.org/30336.html This article examines some of the consequences of misclassifying workers as independent contractors when they should be treated as employees. http://tc.eserver.org/30204.html http://tc.eserver.org/30204.html Making your objectives specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-based not only focuses the attention of the organization on high priority activities, but it also creates metrics that can be measured and monitored in order to see how well the organization is performing. http://tc.eserver.org/30172.html http://tc.eserver.org/30172.html Strategic planning, the process of determining where you intend to be and how you're going to get there, is essential to the success of any organization. But our assessment of the information development community indicates that the majority of organizations do little or no strategic planning. One reason is that their leaders often don't know what strategic planning is, why it's important, or how to do it. http://tc.eserver.org/30182.html http://tc.eserver.org/30182.html Historically, the only career path communicators had was into management. Today, other options are available such as human factors specialists, usability specialists, instructional designers, and multi-media designers. Understanding the manager S role is key before focusing on that path. Unfortunately, too many communicators take the management path and decide it's not for them. When this happens, it may be too late to refocus on other career options in the ever-changing technological environment. http://tc.eserver.org/30147.html http://tc.eserver.org/30147.html Our roles as technical communicators are often dictated to us by other people. Clients come to us after their product has already been developed, saying, 'I need a manual,' or 'I've written the necessary procedures--just make them look nice. ' It's easy to fall into the trap of just doing what we're told when we're told to do it. http://tc.eserver.org/30152.html http://tc.eserver.org/30152.html To better predict your staffing and schedule needs on future projects, you should keep a record of what you've done in the past. This paper presents a template for one way to formalize such records to ensure consistent reporting and to provide statistics in a way that is meaningful for future estimates. The workshop will present case studies to help you understand how to use the data in this report to estimate and schedule your next project. http://tc.eserver.org/30076.html http://tc.eserver.org/30076.html Leveraging on the success of my business, DocuStar, this paper describes some of the strategies I have used to grow my one-person freelance gig into a business employing over 65 employees on our own premises and servicing over 200 hi-tech companies per year. While the profit margin may not match that of the up-and-coming dotcoms, the needs of the market foretell a solid and ever-growing future within the technical documentation niche. With a strong commitment to hard work, an adventurous excitement for conquest and a paramount and obsessive commitment to quality and integrity, technical writing can certainly be grown into a big business venture. http://tc.eserver.org/29914.html http://tc.eserver.org/29914.html It is possible to survive in a start-up. As new technologies emerge so do start-ups where, more often than not, process and procedures have yet to be implemented. This article takes a look at the three key elements needed for Tech Pubs to survive in a start-up. http://tc.eserver.org/29909.html http://tc.eserver.org/29909.html Many technical communicators and managers find themselves in organizations that have undergone significant reorganization, acquisitions, or mergers. Many of us also work in teams that are distributed worldwide. In such a dynamic, fast-paced environment, we found the SWOT analysis to be a simple, cost-effective tool for gaining insight into the workings of our organization. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Whether you are a manager, an individual contributor, or someone who wants to improve how your company’s Tech Pubs organization works, you can use SWOT analysis for organizational planning. http://tc.eserver.org/29902.html http://tc.eserver.org/29902.html If the technology 'bubble' and the subsequent economic slowdown have demonstrated nothing else, we are more aware than ever of the need to change with the times, redefine ourselves, and ensure that we're demonstrating maximum value to our company and clients. In the context of the current economy, the more value you can demonstrate, the more likely you will be employed. This paper briefly describes a model for contribution within a technical communication career and provides specific and practical advice for moving toward the most valued, strategic contributions. http://tc.eserver.org/29767.html http://tc.eserver.org/29767.html Social psychology and organization development suggest that virtually all people, and all teams, must deal with conflicting impulses toward effective and ineffective behaviour. Research shows that it is a basic human trait to want to succeed, to be in control, and to avoid embarrassment. Group dynamics research also suggests that teams operate on two dimensions: the task or work dimension, and the social or relationship dimension. High-performing teams pay attention to both the task and social environments. They create an environment that minimizes the occurrence of face-saving and defensive behaviour. This environment is usually characterized by honesty and authenticity, by the use of relevant and verifiable information, and by a willingness to own up to mistakes. http://tc.eserver.org/29772.html http://tc.eserver.org/29772.html In today's environment we often find ourselves drowning in our work. We don't take the time to stop and assess what we are doing. Are there better ways to do what we do? Are we making the biggest and best contribution we can make? Can you manage innovation? This paper will discuss the importance of innovation and one method we used to drive innovation. http://tc.eserver.org/29775.html http://tc.eserver.org/29775.html Making the leap from independent consultant to employer is a complex process. When you become an employer you are no longer dealing with the same tasks that are familiar to you. When we decided to combine our efforts to start a training and documentation consulting company, we overcame difficulties, but made mistakes along the way. If you have been pondering the idea of starting a business, we hope that our experience can better prepare you for becoming a successful employer. http://tc.eserver.org/29783.html http://tc.eserver.org/29783.html Two members of the management team from LSI Logic Storage Systems' Technical Publications Department review how their team developed a vision statement and an information product development process based on that vision statement. The workshop provides participants opportunities to learn about the value of vision statements and production processes as well as to begin developing these materials for their own organizations. Participants will also share ideas on how to maintain process integrity through customer focus, team feedback on product and process quality, and strategic continuous improvement. Participants will receive materials that enable them to draft their own vision statements, information product development processes, and continuous improvement team operating practices. http://tc.eserver.org/29739.html http://tc.eserver.org/29739.html You've secured the budget to produce some badly needed, high visibility deliverables. Part of that budget includes funding for contractors. To help manage and guide the communications between your contractors, your staff, and your management, you want to use your company's best practices. The best practices of the contractor or provider firm you employ should closely match your own company's best practices. Beginning on the "same page" will eliminate headaches and expenses during the lifecycle of the project. A quick comparison of practices and procedures enables you to proceed with the project confident that you are using competent outside resources. http://tc.eserver.org/29640.html http://tc.eserver.org/29640.html Role play activities allow learners to test new skills and apply them to the real world. Effective role-plays must be carefully planned and conducted in order to be effective. This article offers advice on creating and conducting role-play activities, and transferring their learnings to the real world. http://tc.eserver.org/29653.html http://tc.eserver.org/29653.html Every technical communicator must develop a set of management skills appropriate to the task in order to excel as the leader of the communication team. This calls for multiple skills including being part diplomat, part technical expert, part salesman, and part turtle. http://tc.eserver.org/29863.html http://tc.eserver.org/29863.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/29663.html http://tc.eserver.org/29663.html This paper presents a case study of a technical publications department that tested the practicality of JoAnn Hackos’ process maturity model for a small team that experienced both resource cuts and increased workload pressures. The process of initial evaluation in terms of the model helped to identify management goals and actions that increased process maturity. The positive outcomes included both high quality, innovative work and also better structures for worker creativity, productivity, and satisfaction. This success story demonstrates the potential of the model and recommends it for consideration, even by publications groups facing critical challenges. http://tc.eserver.org/29870.html http://tc.eserver.org/29870.html This paper presents strategies for technical communication managers who may be disenchanted with past outsourcing experiences or uncertain about how to make outsourcing relationships work. Research shows that if expectations are not set up front with the service provider or if the manager's in-house team feels threatened, the relationship is likely to fail. In this paper, I focus on reasons for outsourcing, which technical communication tasks to outsource, what to consider when choosing a service provider, and ways to prepare for and support an outsourcing relationship so that it results in a phenomenal--rather than a nightmarish--experience. http://tc.eserver.org/29594.html http://tc.eserver.org/29594.html With revenue flattening, David Galbenski needed a bold new plan. But was outsourcing everything to India really the right move? Darren Dahl speaks to some of the complexities in outsourcing legal work overseas. http://tc.eserver.org/29404.html http://tc.eserver.org/29404.html What follows is the abridged version of the list of mistakes I have assembled in this manner over the last thirteen years of watching Technical Leads get it wrong. It is my contention that if you can just avoid making these mistakes, you are well on your way to doing a good job as a Technical Lead. http://tc.eserver.org/29373.html http://tc.eserver.org/29373.html If you have ever been forced to deal with business types who have no technical know-how, then you know how these types can work against IT's progress. Here's how to improve your business/IT communication by concentrating on the strategic goals. http://tc.eserver.org/29371.html http://tc.eserver.org/29371.html Delivering project reports in radically different formats gave the client a bad impression of this consulting firm. Here's how the staff remedied the situation and learned from their mistake. http://tc.eserver.org/29366.html http://tc.eserver.org/29366.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/29363.html http://tc.eserver.org/29363.html It's tempting to fill your early days as an IT manager by focusing on problems in your comfort zone: the technical side. But to be effective, you'll have to learn to balance managing your team and attending to technical problems. http://tc.eserver.org/29369.html http://tc.eserver.org/29369.html Avoid looking too closely at the details when taking on a project. http://tc.eserver.org/29341.html http://tc.eserver.org/29341.html A CEO is enamored with technology but doesn't understand the issues involved in implementing his time- and money-hungry IT ideas. What would you do to solve this problem? http://tc.eserver.org/29346.html http://tc.eserver.org/29346.html Traditional approaches to management won't work with knowledge workers, who are brilliant yet notoriously resistant to being managed. http://tc.eserver.org/29348.html http://tc.eserver.org/29348.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/29332.html http://tc.eserver.org/29332.html This article offers tips for project and development managers hiring a technical writer to document a software development project. http://tc.eserver.org/29347.html http://tc.eserver.org/29347.html What do you do about those intelligent and talented employees who are simply unable to finish anything? These are the people who are seemingly paralyzed by ambiguity and are incapable of moving forward until every possible question has been answered. Paul Glen has some advice. http://tc.eserver.org/29108.html http://tc.eserver.org/29108.html Is there a difference in the dominant leadership style between technical and non-technical superiors? Which leadership style of superiors will give their subordinates more freedom on the job? By using House's Path-Goal Model [1] in a study involving a survey of subordinates of 100 technical and 100 non-technical companies in Singapore, I found that technical superiors tend to adopt a supportive leadership style, while non-technical superiors adopt a more achievement-oriented one. This manifests in significant differences between the two kinds of superiors in the extent of the leader's position power (formal authority), the degree of autonomy subordinates want, and the extent subordinates control their goal achievements. http://tc.eserver.org/28942.html http://tc.eserver.org/28942.html Every designer faces a choice at some point in their career -- to manage or not to manage. Erin Malone helps you walk through the questions you need to make that choice. http://tc.eserver.org/28591.html http://tc.eserver.org/28591.html When a company wants to make a certain segment of the organization better, usually they 'throw more money at it' and hire more employees. The problem with doing this for a UX team is that people with overlapping skills and ideas usually end up hindering user-centered design rather than helping. Conflicting design decisions will soon turn into a design by committee situation that won't help the consumer nor expose individual expertise (Brown 2004). User experience groups need to be flexible, agile, and scalable, and should only expand if the projects they work on are sufficiently large. The following is an overview of skills and disciplines needed for a successful user experience group. http://tc.eserver.org/28557.html http://tc.eserver.org/28557.html As technical publications groups are finding themselves thrust upon the main stage of the global economy, they face new demands such as reconstituting themselves internally and resituating themselves in their wider organizations. Read on for ideas about how to incorporate content management (CM) into the process. http://tc.eserver.org/28505.html http://tc.eserver.org/28505.html When you're using enterprise software to help run your organization, the software vendor becomes a key ally--and the right relationship may be as important as features or price. Steve Lancman and Steve Heye recommend methods for comparing the intangible aspects of vendor services. http://tc.eserver.org/28402.html http://tc.eserver.org/28402.html To use freelance talent effectively it's important to know your strenghts and weaknesses, to be aware of the risks and have contingencies to handle when things go wrong. http://tc.eserver.org/28401.html http://tc.eserver.org/28401.html A 10-step guide to setting up a web design or development business. I won't go into all the general stuff about running a business (although some of this info is relevant whatever you do). I'll keep it focused on how you can quickly start doing good work and earning real money. http://tc.eserver.org/28371.html http://tc.eserver.org/28371.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/28224.html http://tc.eserver.org/28224.html If you think accountants are boring, you are so very wrong. Accountants can be comical, scary, amusingly threatening and sometimes also really smart. http://tc.eserver.org/28225.html http://tc.eserver.org/28225.html Setting up a company in Japan as a foreigner isn't as difficult as you might guess. Of course, it helped that I knew some things about Japan, and starting off--before I started off. http://tc.eserver.org/27978.html http://tc.eserver.org/27978.html Project management principles that can easily be applied to working as a documentation manager. http://tc.eserver.org/27977.html http://tc.eserver.org/27977.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/27870.html http://tc.eserver.org/27870.html The author discusses how managers can best prepare for an interview to ensure that the perfect candidate for the job is selected. The article also includes charts that can be used to assess a candidateï¿ï¿ï¿s performance in key areas such as tool skill level, knowledge of online help, and analytical ability. http://tc.eserver.org/27873.html http://tc.eserver.org/27873.html Kaizen is a Japanese phrase that means 'continuous improvement' and has long been used by Japanese managers. Find out how to apply this style to your work as a technical communicator and how kaizen can also be used effectively when working in a team. http://tc.eserver.org/27871.html http://tc.eserver.org/27871.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/27837.html http://tc.eserver.org/27837.html Conventional wisdom defines business success largely by company size; the steeper the growth curve, the better. But is this model appropriate for freelancers? Most freelancers in publishing work independently; the amount of work we can accept is limited by the number of hours we can work and how many pages we can edit, proofread, or index per hour. For this reason, if we cultivate too many clients, we’re forced to turn down projects we’d like to accept. On the other hand, few freelancers have arrangements for receiving regular, predictable assignments from clients. http://tc.eserver.org/27561.html http://tc.eserver.org/27561.html As an agile coach, I get the opportunity to facilitate many teams’ first iteration planning meeting. Now these meetings do start out like typical meetings, with everyone sitting around a table and one person talking. But as the meeting progresses and discussions begin around the work, it can begin to look like chaos to an outsider. What I didn’t realize however, until recently, was that it can also look like chaos to some of the insiders as well! http://tc.eserver.org/27563.html http://tc.eserver.org/27563.html The authors of this whitepaper have helped many hundreds of teams adopt Scrum. Here they share how CIOs can implement Scrum on an organization-wide basis - the challenges they will face as well as the rewards - and provides a playbook for adopting Scrum in enterprises where software, and lots of it, is the key to competitive success in the marketplace. http://tc.eserver.org/27569.html http://tc.eserver.org/27569.html The first and most basic rhythm of the Agile feedback cycle is the daily standup. It's just what it sounds like - a daily meeting where everyone stands up for the duration of the meeting. When I give Agile workshops, one of the questions I'm often asked is how to do daily standups when the teams are geographically dispersed. While this can be a challenge to coordinate and maintain, you'll soon find that the benefits of the daily communication make it well worth the effort. Here are several options to consider with your team: http://tc.eserver.org/27564.html http://tc.eserver.org/27564.html This whitepaper provides an Agile development overview full of techniques, best practices and educational materials. http://tc.eserver.org/27562.html http://tc.eserver.org/27562.html This paper focuses on re-defining the job of project manager to better fit the self-managed team environment, one of the core agile principles. Special emphasis is placed on the shift to servant leadership, with its focus on facilitation and collaboration. Mapping of PMBOK knowledge areas to agile practices is discussed at length. After reading this paper, project managers should have a better understanding of what changes they need to make professionally, and how to make these changes in order to survive the transition to an agile software development approach. http://tc.eserver.org/27403.html http://tc.eserver.org/27403.html Businesses large and small can focus on what they do best by outsourcing non-core functions such as debt recovery. http://tc.eserver.org/27401.html http://tc.eserver.org/27401.html In the last two years, more than 300 state bills were introduced directly targeting outsourcing. While the 12 bills that made it into law will impact government contracting most directly, certain pending legislation, if enacted, may force providers to have onshore operations for purposes of providing certain services or handling certain data. http://tc.eserver.org/27324.html http://tc.eserver.org/27324.html All companies have business processes that can be improved. Most companies can benefit from automation or further automation of solutions. http://tc.eserver.org/27254.html http://tc.eserver.org/27254.html Though the term 'agile' isn't often ascribed to the ways of software configuration management, Steve Berczuk offers some ways in which applying the principles of agile SCM can help teams work more effectively. http://tc.eserver.org/27252.html http://tc.eserver.org/27252.html With the proliferation of outsourcing, there is little doubt that it has become the business byword of the last few years. Organisations of all sizes are realising the benefits of using suppliers to handle processes such as technology, HR, finance and procurement. Lured by the cost savings and the ability to harness external expertise much more economically than providing that experience in-house, more and more organisations believe outsourcing to be the cure all for business ills. http://tc.eserver.org/27253.html http://tc.eserver.org/27253.html Michele Sliger understands the turmoil traditional project management practitioners go through as they make the transition from plan-driven approaches to the newer agile methodologies. This week, she offers more insight as she continues her four-part series on relating Project Management Institute (PMI) best practices--as identified in the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK)--to agile practices. In this column, Michele discusses scope management and time management. http://tc.eserver.org/27221.html http://tc.eserver.org/27221.html Could your department's contributions be better understood and valued? This workshop will give you some ideas for improving your department's image. You'll learn some time-honored marketing techniques for finding out what your customers think of your efforts. You'll also find out how to use those techniques to change perceptions. You'll discover ways to prevent second-guessing of your document designs. And you'll find out how to promote your services to the rest of your organization. http://tc.eserver.org/26926.html http://tc.eserver.org/26926.html For projects of importance, you need divergent skills to succeed. It is not possible to find an individual with all of the skill sets needed, nor would you want to. To create a first rate website or software product, you need many tasks to be done in parallel, which means that more than one person has to be working at them. As soon as two or more people are involved, the dynamic for how decisions are made, and how work gets done, becomes important. Any group of people can do work together, but it takes the right approach and team philosophy for that group to produce good work. Collaboration is critical in any creative pursuit involving groups of people, from filmmaking, to urban architecture or even web and software development. http://tc.eserver.org/26913.html http://tc.eserver.org/26913.html Before you worry about interviewing, consider this: good interviewing does not make a good candidate out of a bad one. The higher the quality of the people coming in to your interviewing process, the higher the quality of those that will come out of it. Do not rely on HR or some other person to decide who enters the process. The more energy you, as a hiring manager, invest in recruiting, the better your results will be. http://tc.eserver.org/26918.html http://tc.eserver.org/26918.html What follows is some advice for managers on how to manager people, especially talented people. I worked for nine years at Microsoft, sometimes managing projects, sometimes managing people, but always with a manager above me. I think I’m smart, but many of the people who have worked for me definitely were. Over the years I’ve experienced many mistakes and successes in both how I was managed, and how I managed others. There's no one way to manage people, but there are some approaches that I think most good managers share. http://tc.eserver.org/26910.html http://tc.eserver.org/26910.html The best advice for having a bad manager is to seek other employment. Don’t undervalue your happiness: it’s impossible to be happy if you work directly for someone you can’t stand. It may be difficult to find another job, but if you are willing to make compromises in other areas (salary, position, project, location, etc.) it will certainly be possible. Being happy and underpaid is a much better way to spend a life than unhappy and anything else. http://tc.eserver.org/26739.html http://tc.eserver.org/26739.html The project was a good test of the personal and portable knowledge worker tools that I have been recommending over the past four years, and a chance to reflect on how they all fit together. These are the items of hardware and software that proved most valuable to me. http://tc.eserver.org/26661.html http://tc.eserver.org/26661.html There are two basic alternatives for structuring a usability/UCD group within an organization: members of the group can be centralized in a single department, or, members can be distributed among development teams. http://tc.eserver.org/26600.html http://tc.eserver.org/26600.html If you are a newly-appointed documentation manager hiring your first technical writer, you are probably wondering what you have gotten yourself into. Do you know how to attract quality applicants, assess candidates’ qualifications, effectively interview , compare candidates, ensure a good fit, make an offer, negotiate compensation, and measure success? Where should you start? Hiring employees can be difficult whether adding one employee or staffing a full team from scratch. http://tc.eserver.org/26589.html http://tc.eserver.org/26589.html This paper examines the connection between communication ability and job satisfaction. The Social Skills Inventory and the Job Descriptive Index were administered to sixty-eight participants. The mean age of participants was 26.5 (SD=8.84) and mean duration of current employment was 3.89 years (SD=5.67). The results showed a significant correlation between overall social skills and overall job satisfaction. This study also examined how managers and nonmanagers differ when examining the connection between social skills and job satisfaction. The results showed a significant correlation between nonmanager’s ability to interpret verbal and nonverbal messages and their overall job satisfaction. http://tc.eserver.org/26590.html http://tc.eserver.org/26590.html This study is a first attempt at using Speech Act Theory (SAT), as a way to analyze and explain how upward influence (UI) strategies are performed. Based on SAT and considerations of face, as explained by Brown and Levinson (1987), this study tries to explain UI strategies used by members within an Indian workplace. We carefully selected six examples of UI to demonstrate how SAT can be useful in analyzing UI strategies. We found that even the slightest change in the anticipated degree of willingness or receptivity of the receiver necessitates a change in the strategy to be adopted. Violations of sincerity conditions and/ or inappropriate threats to face create infelicitous conditions and may lead to failed attempts at UI. http://tc.eserver.org/26593.html http://tc.eserver.org/26593.html The one-page MBA résumé has become, in graduate management education, the self-representational document of choice. Sentences are out, bullets are in, details remain. The key is how to detail the bullet to describe, define, and deliver, in non-narrative form, professional achievements and accomplishments. In this paper, I examine samples of raw quasi-narrative descriptions and suggest restyled improvements for single-line bullets that more clearly, precisely, and effectively represent how authors describe their achievements. The raw data come from a data set of some 400 résumés submitted as a task in a studio-based broadcast course on business communication. The authors are mid-level managers in Latin America enrolled in a global MBA program. The paper examines the content and form of the objective, summary, and professional experience sections of the résumé and provides a set of tips for written language use in the résumé. http://tc.eserver.org/26591.html http://tc.eserver.org/26591.html Business communication courses teach written and oral communication skills with an emphasis on using technology. This study asks 221 South Texas employers and 212 faculty members of a regional university to rate employees’ and students’ communication skill competencies. The survey asked 12 questions—four about written competencies, five on verbal, and three on technology skills. Employers consistently rated employees higher than faculty rated students. The ratings offer implications for the business communication course—basic grammar and punctuation need to be emphasized. http://tc.eserver.org/26174.html http://tc.eserver.org/26174.html Running a translation business is not easy. As small as the industry may be, we as business owners face a full set of business challenges: personnel management, sales and marketing, client relations, and the list goes on. Everyday, we go into work hoping to improve the business, to make it more successful. Sometimes we wonder, what is the killer factor? What makes some companies more successful than others? http://tc.eserver.org/26175.html http://tc.eserver.org/26175.html Since everyone has only one life to live; I would like mine to be an enjoyable one, enriched by interesting experiences and by meaningful relationships with the people that I care about. I want to have a lot of time for myself and experience other cultures from around the world. So how do I achieve this goal and still be highly effective at work--thus obtaining financial independence, as well as self satisfaction from work? http://tc.eserver.org/25783.html http://tc.eserver.org/25783.html Well-written performance appraisals are among the most effective tools for managing by objective and for developing people. Use these 10 Tips for Effective Performance Appraisals to significantly increase your team's effectiveness and perceived value within your organization. http://tc.eserver.org/25565.html http://tc.eserver.org/25565.html This article details how mozdev.org built a nonprofit organization and shows you how to do the same for your community. I'll cover fundraising, obtaining legal advice, staffing, and more. http://tc.eserver.org/25529.html http://tc.eserver.org/25529.html In the mid-1990s, Makiko Itoh and her partner left New York's cubicle land for a web shop of their own in the suburbs of Zurich. Learn from her tips on running your own web agency. http://tc.eserver.org/25526.html http://tc.eserver.org/25526.html You've mastered Photoshop, Flash, CSS, PHP, ASP, XHTML and JavaScript; studied usability, accessibility, and information architecture; and can fake your way through XML. But there's more to running a web business than that. Part Four of a continuing series. http://tc.eserver.org/24954.html http://tc.eserver.org/24954.html This workshop exposes attendees to the complexities of capital equipment budgeting and purchase, specifically in the areas of depreciation, useful life of a product, and accounting and company policy. By role-playing in a simulated business environment, attendees 'learn the ropes' and sharpen their skills. http://tc.eserver.org/24952.html http://tc.eserver.org/24952.html CEOs overwhelmingly believe that revenue growth is their number one priority: four out of five CEOs (83%) now believe that revenue growth is the most important path to boosting financial performance over the next three years. And what do they see as the two key drivers for this growth? New and differentiated products and services (nearly two-thirds) and new markets (55%). Responsiveness is the new key competence, i.e., CEOs acknowledge that they need the ability to recognize, analyze and respond more effectively to continuously changing market conditions and risks. Reinstituting customer responsive organizations is high on their growth agenda. http://tc.eserver.org/24957.html http://tc.eserver.org/24957.html ISO procedure manuals are sophisticated, dynamic documents that are developed as the result of a complex process. This panel focuses on an often overlooked but critical aspect of project management—the kickoff meeting. Kickoff meetings bring together all the key people and issues from the beginning, thus mitigating rework and problems later in the project. Kickoff meetings can be used to introduce and manage the ISO procedure development process: empowering the ISO procedure-development team, gathering information to capture best practice, and reviewing and validating information. http://tc.eserver.org/24931.html http://tc.eserver.org/24931.html This progression session focuses on diaries as serious tools for professional development. We discuss attitudes toward keeping diaries; issues such as anonymity and confidentiality; and strategies for tapping the full potential of the diary as a source of creativity and guidance. http://tc.eserver.org/24878.html http://tc.eserver.org/24878.html Sheds light on choosing a business structure and paying business taxes--and just may save you money and headaches. http://tc.eserver.org/24815.html http://tc.eserver.org/24815.html Entrepreneurship is a process of planning, organizing and assuming a business venture risk. Downsizing, (rightsizing), mergers and acquisitions, 'glass ceilings', potential layoffs, company closings, stress dangers and unfair employment practices, are numbing descriptions relating to many current businesses. If you possess excellent work skills and habits, this should lead to early investigations into entreprenuerships, and analyze alternate risks vs. benefits. Countless false starts and heavy expenses can be avoided by visiting the local public or college libraries for entrepreneurial texts. Using the services of your local Small Business Administration office is most valuable. Over 16,000,000 small businesses in the U.S. can’t be wrong. A study of your future via the entrepreneurial route may surprise you! 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/24764.html http://tc.eserver.org/24764.html Using benchmarking, a company compares its processes with another best-practice company to improve the way it does business. The panelists, who have participated in several benchmarking projects, explain the benchmarking process and offer practical, real-world advice on how to do successful benchmarking. http://tc.eserver.org/24760.html http://tc.eserver.org/24760.html 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.' http://tc.eserver.org/24761.html http://tc.eserver.org/24761.html The latest buzz term in business journals is 'the virtual corporation.' This term refers to the way in which companies are trying to reshape themselves to cope with the economic downturn and succeed in the global marketplace. 'Virtual', in this case, indicates that the corporation appears to be a huge entity with vast capabilities but is really small, lean, and very flexible. This paper looks at some of the ways in which our departments, our publications, and we as technical communicators will also have to go through a process of becoming 'virtual'. http://tc.eserver.org/24765.html http://tc.eserver.org/24765.html This study surveys scientific and technical communicators to determine their perceptions of their role as interviewees in the performance appraisal interview. The results reveal that interviewees think the appraisal process is unreliable and invalid, that managers do not stimulate growth and development in the appraisal interview, and that subordinates have little influence concerning what goes on in the department. Other results are discussed in the paper. http://tc.eserver.org/24693.html http://tc.eserver.org/24693.html Hiring technical writers is an infrequent but important part of a manager's job. Clearly defining the job and the required skills is the first step. Then use all of your networks to find candidates. Read résumés to find those that best match your requirements. The interview team needs to be prepared to ask relevant questions that verify and expand on the résumé and samples. Compare the interview team's evaluations, then check the references of your best one or two candidates, and make a prompt offer. http://tc.eserver.org/24704.html http://tc.eserver.org/24704.html When large, high-tech organizations downsize, one of the groups that gets a hard look is the pubs group. Often considered a support function that 'just provides those necessary evils, the manuals,' a redesigned pubs organization built around fundamental business concepts like profitability and customer success can become a leader in helping the larger organization achieve success. http://tc.eserver.org/24623.html http://tc.eserver.org/24623.html With such a considerable portion of our collective mindshare devoted to information management products these days, it's no wonder that you're lost in terminology and technology. And it's no wonder that so many of us are confused. http://tc.eserver.org/24600.html http://tc.eserver.org/24600.html Becoming an individual contributor again after being a manager can be one of the most important decisions of your career. I made the decision over two years ago, and it was right for me. Is it right for you? http://tc.eserver.org/24602.html http://tc.eserver.org/24602.html Interdisciplinary work is complicated by communication and collaboration problems. Technical communicators can serve as effective interdisciplinary team facilitators if they predict and prepare for the linguistic and political problems many interdisciplinary teams encounter. Effective preparation includes preliminary research to define key terms and identify political concerns. Interdisciplinary team facilitators must also establish their own role on the team and help other members understand the benefits and difficulties of interdisciplinary collaboration. Finally, facilitators must establish a system to archive the work of the team. http://tc.eserver.org/24426.html http://tc.eserver.org/24426.html Object-oriented software development brings with it new challenges for everyone involved, including the project's documentation team. By taking certain steps be fore, during, and after an OO project, writers-and the programmers they work with-can help to guard against the pitfalls that can be a part of OO development. http://tc.eserver.org/24416.html http://tc.eserver.org/24416.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/24411.html http://tc.eserver.org/24411.html Job-descriptions.org is a free resource for job descriptions and job details. Our website currently contains over 13,000 job descriptions. These jobs are divided into categories, then divisions, then groups and finally the job descriptions themselves. http://tc.eserver.org/24396.html http://tc.eserver.org/24396.html Strategic planning is a process that enables organizations to determine where they intend to be and how to get there. Independent businesses must plan ahead to survive. Many internal organizations, threatened by corporate downsizing and outsourcing, must do the same. But what do you do after you've developed your strategic plan? Committing yourself and your organization to implementing your plan is a long-term challenge. http://tc.eserver.org/24367.html http://tc.eserver.org/24367.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/24357.html http://tc.eserver.org/24357.html Marketing is what we do to get and keep customers. The best marketing is effective and efficient -- it delivers the 'best bang for the buck.' To create such marketing, you need to form a strategic plan from your knowledge of the product or service, the market, your competition, and the goals you want to achieve. Then you must develop and implement a creative plan, including specific tasks and products (ads or brochures, for example) to achieve those goals. http://tc.eserver.org/24329.html http://tc.eserver.org/24329.html Have you ever been involved in a project that was a disaster from beginning to end? What went wrong? What did you learn from those problems? How did you either salvage the project or decide that it couldn’t be saved? These projects are horrible experiences at the time, but they offer many valuable lessons that can help each of us better manage our information development projects in the future.