Listening to the Customer's Voice

Perhaps the greatest challenge facing the software developer is sharing the vision of the final product with the customer. All stakeholders in a project-developers, end users, software managers, customer managers-must achieve a common understanding of what the product will be and do, or someone will be surprised when it is delivered. Surprises in software are almost never good news. Therefore, we need ways to accurately capture, interpret, and represent the voice of the customer when specifying the requirements for a software product.

Wiegers, Karl E. Process Impact. Articles>User Centered Design>Collaboration

Listservs: Connecting Students with Practitioners  

An instructor of technical communication describes how she uses technology to give her students access to professionals in the field.

Dyke, Julie L. Intercom (2000). Articles>Collaboration>Mailing Lists

Location is Everything When it Comes to Getting Information from SMEs

A 20 minute monologue about the best way to get information from SMEs--sit by them, permanently if possible. Many IT organizations station the writer remotely from the developers, programmers, and other SMEs, but nothing could be more damaging to getting the information you need. Increasing your proximity also increases the communication you receive.

Johnson, Tom H. Tech Writer Voices (2007). Articles>TC>Collaboration>SMEs

The Long Hallway

If a virtual design firm is to be successful, it must develop an adaptive culture that fosters and strengthens connections between far-flung collaborators.

Follett, Jonathan. List Apart, A (2007). Design>Web Design>Collaboration>Online

Long-Distance Teams: Facing the Challenges  

Offers advice for managers of long-distance teams on working across time zones, accommodating team members' cultural norms, easing the difficulties of language differences, and nurturing team spirit.

Legg, Kathy A. Intercom (2004). Articles>Project Management>Collaboration>Online

Look Outside Conventional Techniques to Manage 'Geeks'  

Traditional approaches to management won't work with knowledge workers, who are brilliant yet notoriously resistant to being managed.

Bowers, Toni. TechRepublic (2003). Careers>Management>Collaboration

Mail Your Newsletter with Less Labor and Cost

A lot of STC chapter and SIG mailings are done the old-fashioned way: envelopes stuffed by hand, and stamped manually or--occasionally--with a stamp machine. That's an awful lot of work, and expensive too. When I confronted this problem a few years back for my current employer, some research revealed a solution that eliminated the annual pressganging of volunteers to stuff envelopes and also saved us a fair bit of money.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Geoff-Hart.com (1999). Articles>Collaboration>Community Building>STC

Making Your Team Work  

This presentation looks at some of the common pitfalls that first-time technical communication managers encounter, and discusses how this affects the effectiveness of both managers and their teams, and hopes to spark a debate about alternative management styles.

Bailie, Rahel Anne. Hamer Associates (2001). Presentations>Management>Collaboration

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

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

Managing a Distributed Documentation Group  

A distributed documentation group is one in which people work together from distant locations, The new problem in managing such a group is that casual, face-to-face communication is missing. Technological solutions include source control, email, groupware, telephone, and the World Wide Web. Human solutions may be even more important. Autonomy, explicit standards, various ways to meet, and deliberately working across locations build the necessary communications and trust.

Jackson, Ken. STC Proceedings (1996). Presentations>Management>Collaboration>Online

Managing a Documentation Project from Both Sides of the Atlantic  

Most of us struggle every day with keeping the lines of communication open between developers, subject matter experts (SMEs), customers, and writers. Sometimes you can circumvent these difficulties by simply walking upstairs or across the hall and chatting with the appropriate person. But what happens when it's not a staircase or hallway separating you but a very large ocean? The best way to keep an overseas project on track is to put together a writing team in the most convenient location; meet at least once with the development team; and set up your communication channels early.

Morgan, Sharon. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Documentation>Collaboration>Online

Managing Chapter Competitions  

Holding competitions at regional and local levels enhances the value a chapter provides its members. This workshop, designed for chapter leaders and competition managers, provides a practical and well-tested plan for managing the chapter’s annual competition. Attendees will receive a complete package of samples, spreadsheet and document templates, and presentation slides that they can customize for their chapters.

Levander, Deanne K. and Preeti Mathur. STC Proceedings (2004). Articles>Collaboration>Community Building>STC

Managing Content: Version Control in a Collaborative Workplace  

The increasingly collaborative nature of the workplace--including writing teams and documentation groups--heightens the need for sophisticated document management solutions. Written for managers of workgroups and writing/editorial leads, this paper examines some common issues, including version control, document lifecycle management, and support for collaborative authoring and review. This paper also presents a model for finding and implementing a technology solution that makes sense for your team, as well as a case study of a successful implementation.

Angier, Jenny and Paul Foy. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>Content Management>Collaboration

Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy  

Today's businesses are overwhelmed with the need to create more content, more quickly, customized for more customers and for more media than ever before. Combine this with decreasing resources, time, and budgets and you have a stressful situation for organizations and their content creators. To reduce the costs of creating, managing, and distributing content and to ensure content effectively supports your organizational and customer needs, organizations can benefit from a unified content strategy. A unified content strategy is a repeatable method of identifying all content requirements up front, creating consistently structured content for reuse, managing that content in a definitive source, and assembling content on demand to meet your customers' needs.

Rockley, Ann. E-Doc (2002). Design>Content Management>Collaboration

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

Managing Multiple Deliverables with a Small Staff  

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

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

Managing Scientific and Technical Information In Environmental Cases: Principles and Practices for Mediators and Facilitators  

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

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

Managing the Communication Between Writers and SMEs  

The development of a modern software product is a complex process involving a variety of disciplines, including that of the technical writer. It is essential that the writers establish close relationships with all other groups in the process and that they build effective and efficient systems of communication between them. The job of the writing manager is to ensure that the writing team obtains the information it needs in a timely manner and that the group interacts effectively with other groups in the process. This can be achieved by a blend of intergroup communication, background research, documentation and schedule planning and a well organized documentation review process.

Morgan, Sharon. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>TC>Collaboration>SMEs

Managing Virtual Teams: Getting the Most from Wikis, Blogs, and Other Collaborative Tools--Interview with the Authors

I talk with Katherine (Kit) Brown, Brenda Huettner, and Char James-Tanny about their latest book, Managing Virtual Teams: Getting the Most from Wikis, Blogs, and Other Collaborative Tools.

Brown, Katherine 'Kit', Brenda Huettner, Char James-Tanny and Tom H. Johnson. Tech Writer Voices (2007). Articles>Collaboration>Content Management>Podcasts

Managing--and Surviving--A Design Project  

Describes a process for designing documents that establishes clear goals and minimizes disagreements.

Harvey, Patrick. Intercom (2001). Design>Project Management>Collaboration

Many Heads Make Work Right

Writing is popularly considered a spontaneous exercise, and often is. Spontaneous writing, however, does not always result in high quality results.

Aiyyangar, Ramesh. Indus (2002). Articles>Writing>Collaboration>Technical Writing

Marketing Yourself as a Marketing Writer  

Technical communication consultants may find that marketing writing makes an excellent second line of business. Technology companies, marketing services firms, and advertising agencies often use freelancers to write marketing documents. They particularly need good writers who understand technology. This paper discusses the business of freelance marketing writing and how it differs from independent technical writing. Topics include the kinds of projects that marketing writers work on, how development cycles typically differ from those of technical documents, and how to effectively market yourself as a marketing writer.

Massa, Jack A. STC Proceedings (2002). Careers>Collaboration>Marketing>Business Communication

Marketing Yourself as a Technical Communicator  

No matter what your current status—employee, looking for a job, or independent consultant—marketing yourself is necessary. Marketing is determining what your customers need and then showing how whatever you are selling meets those needs, i.e., provides benefits, and does it better than the competition. When you market yourself, you are basically doing the same thing. If you are an employee, how are you developing your skills so they continue to meet the changing needs of your employer? If you are looking for a job, how does what you bring to the table make you a better candidate than everyone else? If you are an independent, how do you benefit your clients so they turn to you over and over again?

Teich, Thea. STC Proceedings (2002). Careers>TC>Collaboration