Time-Consuming Email Communications

Our documentation and advertising bureau mails five emails with attachments on the average per day to different customers, partners and other service organisations. The sizes of the attachments vary roughly from 50 KB up to 2 MB. About 60% of our emails with attachments don't create any problems with the addressee. However, 40% need additional attention. This fraction causes communication problems.

Thiele, Ulrich. TC-FORUM (2000). Articles>Collaboration>Correspondence>Email

Tips for Negotiating

Negotiation is a part of life, though we may not always think of it in conscious terms. Although this article is written from the perspective of a consultant bidding on a project, the concepts of negotiation apply to many situations where you are trying to reach agreement with someone.

Snyder, Carolyn. Usability Professionals Association (2005). Articles>Collaboration

Together Everyone Achieves More!

The highest priority for team members is achieving the team’s goals. There may be team members who have strong personalities, possess highly specialized skills, and commit themselves to a variety of personal objectives—but the most important thing is the success of the group. To function effectively, members of a team must be flexible, trust one another, and wholeheartedly support every member of the group in its progress toward achieving its goals.

Laurent, J. Suzanna. STC Central Iowa (2001). Articles>Collaboration>TC

Tools for Distributed Development

When it comes to working on distributed teams or one with global development partners spread around the world, you need to use every tool you can to make interaction easier.

Mawdsley, Jason. Dr. Dobb's Journal (2007). Articles>Collaboration>Technology

Top Ten Worst Things SMEs Say or Do

In this podcast, I interview Brenda Huettner about strategies for overcoming the top 10 Worst Things Subject Matter Experts Say or Do.

Huettner, Brenda P. Tech Writer Voices (2007). Articles>Interviews>Collaboration>SMEs

A Total Team Approach to Success  

We have had a very positive experience with a total team approach to accomplishing our business objectives. In our case, at the IBM Software Solutions Programming Laboratory (in Cary, NC, until March 1995, and now in Research Triangle Park), the business objectives are to produce successful software products. But the total team approach is not limited to a particular product or service. Total teams can help you improve the way multiple groups in your organization work together—to increase customer satisfaction through improved quality and speed of delivery, increase productivity, decreasc costs, and even improve morale.

Allen, Pam, Morris Dean, Sharon L. Hayes and Gina Poole. STC Proceedings (1995). Careers>Management>Collaboration

Toward a Theory of Goal Detection in Social Interaction: Effects of Contextual Ambiguity and Tactical Functionality on Goal Inferences and Inference Certainty    

The inferences individuals make about others' goals is an integral, but neglected, aspect of empirical and theoretical work on social interaction. An original theoretical framework is proposed to account for interindividual agreement and certainty of goal inferences. Two experiments applied the framework to explain how contextual ambiguity and tactical functionality affected agreement and certainty. Results generally support hypotheses regarding agreement, such that goal inferences converged (i.e., interobserver agreement increased) as the context and tactic became more compatible, yet results largely do not support hypotheses for inference certainty, as the only significant effect that emerged was that certainty was higher in unambiguous than ambiguous contexts. A reconsideration of the theoretical framework on goal detection is discussed and implications are advanced.

Palomares, Nicholas A. Communication Research (2008). Articles>Collaboration>Rhetoric

Training Options and Team-Oriented Techniques  

After instituting training programs requiring 10 to 20 percent of every person's work week, Motorola reported that plants reinforcing the training received a $33 dollar return on investment for every dollar spent. The demand for training in new computer applications is growing. Selecting computer training options requires (1) an analysis of cost to benefits and (2) teamwork for preparing the materials and delivering the training. Some training techniques that work include knowledge mapping, pilot testing, and team training.

Feinberg, Susan G. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Education>Instructional Design>Collaboration

Trans-Atlantic Roundtable  

Intercultural experts offer their insights about working with colleagues from specific cultures. Included is a table presenting various cultural differences that communicators may experience.

Pejovic, Jean and Marie-Louise Desfray Beaujouan. Intercom (2006). Articles>Collaboration>International

Transferability of Long File Names

If you use Win95, NT, Mac, or any other operating system that allows long file names, are you aware of the problems that can arise when files are transferred to Win 3.11 or DOS? The problems particularly affect files that have long file names in which the first eight characters are the same, e.g. 'minutes of 20 Sept meeting' and 'minutes of 14 Nov meeting'. The problem arises as soon as a file is opened in an operating system that allows only eight characters in the file name, suffix excluded.

Gärdegard, Karin. TC-FORUM (1998). Articles>Collaboration>Operating Systems>Microsoft Windows

Transforming Your Career: Contributing Strategically to Your Company or Client  

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.

Ames, Andrea L. and Susan M. Jensen. STC Proceedings (2004). Careers>Collaboration>Management

Transforming Your Chapter through Corporate Bingo  

As a chapter President, starting the Transformation process can seem a daunting task. Once you have the committee in place, directing its efforts can leave you with even more questions. Not sure what to do next? Look to the corporate Bingo card to help set your course. While the blocks of the corporate Bingo card generate chuckles, smiles, and even more jokes, it also provides direction, guidance, and some thought-provoking considerations for your chapter's transformation.

Guess, Suzanne. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>Collaboration>Community Building>STC

The Tricky Backhand

An hypothetical example of interpersonal communication issues which may arise in the workplace.

Hard at Work. Careers>Workplace>Collaboration

Trust and Zeal in Open Source Advocacy

People who are unfamiliar with open source generally don't like evangelists--at all. This is particularly true for managers who may take the same disdain to evangelists that they take to salespeople and marketers.

Bacon, Jono. O'Reilly and Associates (2005). Articles>Collaboration>Open Source

Two Flavors of Independents  

Many of us (myself included) get caught up in our day-to-day work and forget the value that comes with meeting people face to face. I was reminded of the importance of these meetings in January, when I attended the STC-James River Chapter 2004 Conference in Williamsburg, Virginia. The conference sessions covered everything from intercultural technical communication to XML migration strategies. For me, the conference was an opportunity to find out what was on the minds of technical communicators in the area. As it turned out, some of those concerns related to the theme for this issue.

Martin, Maurice. Intercom (2004). Careers>Freelance>Collaboration

Two Time Zones Beat as One: A Model for International Project Management  

Challenges abound when a documentation team is based in two countries, works with software developers in four countries, and produces documentation for use by engineers in many countries. Differences in language usage, cultural perspectives, time zones, holiday schedules, and educational backgrounds are only a few of the difficulties to overcome.

Auten, Kathlyn, Joan L. Kellogg and Sudha Seshadri. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Documentation>Collaboration>Online

UML Forum

The UML Forum is web community dedicated to the Unified Modeling Language (UML), the industry-standard visual modeling language for specifying software-intensive systems. Here you can find information related to UML specifications, UML tools, UML books, UML papers, and UML mailing lists.

UML Forum. Resources>Collaboration>Community Building>UML

Usability Team Structures

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.

. Usability Body of Knowledge (2007). Articles>Usability>Project Management>Collaboration

Use Body Language to Deliver Your Message  

One of your most effective means to communicate with team members may not involve words. See why senior editor Matthew Osborn believes body language can say it all.

Osborn, Matthew. TechRepublic (2003). Articles>Collaboration>Communication>Workplace

User Interface Should Be a Team Effort

Let's say you've got a clear set of requirements; the users have been defined, the features are associated with user tasks, marketing has done a competitive analysis and everything is good to go. Now what?

Ferlazzo, Ellen Lawson. Sprezzatura Systems (2002). Articles>User Interface>Collaboration

Using Customer Loyalty as a Platform for Teaching Written, Oral, and Team-Based Business Communication  

For many students, their role as customers is their most significant interface with the business world. They understand, at some level, the organizational importance of building customer loyalty for the success of companies. Building on that understanding can provide a context that amplifies their knowledge of business and reinforces the value of effective communication. Using the organizational goal of building customer loyalty as a framework for class discussion and activities gives instructors a real-world rationale that brings the world of business into communication courses. This fresh approach shows you ways to focus student writing, presentations, and group process assignments around the theme of evaluating and improving customer loyalty.

Timm, Paul R. Association for Business Communication (2004). Articles>Education>Writing>Collaboration

Using Design Games

Design games offer an alternative to traditional methods for brainstorming, collecting requirements, building team communication, modeling, and prototyping. Jess McMullin shows us how game principles and examples can complement existing methods.

McMullin, Jess. Boxes and Arrows (2007). Design>Collaboration>Methods

Using Multiple Communication Methods to Disseminate Information About Technical Research  

Technology transfer was a critical component of a research effort designed to develop, test, and evaluate new electronics assembly methods and cleaning techniques to eliminate the use of ozone depleting substances in military hardware manufacturing. Providing technical direction to small and mediumsized companies was critical to not only ensure that the electronic hardware produced conforms to military standards, but to also assure continued reliability of “mission critical” military and space electronic hardware manufactured with these new materials. Four technology transfer methods were initially targeted to transfer information, including (1) newsletters (2) courses, seminars, and conferences (3) bulletin boards, networks (4) satellite broadcasts.

Pierson, John and Leigh F. McElvaney. STC Proceedings (1996). Presentations>Collaboration>TC