Comics: Not Just for Laughs!

Every project has its own unique set of 'opportunities'--also known as challenges. Many of these challenges relate not to the quality of our work, but rather to the communication of our ideas. Often in the course of design, you must communicate complicated concepts to a non-technical (and often uninterested) project sponsor, client, or stakeholder. So how do you capture their interest, get their understanding and buy-in, and finally move on?

Sedaca, Rebekah. Boxes and Arrows (2007). Articles>Project Management>Collaboration>Technical Illustration

Communicate Editorial Changes

Streamline your review process with the robust collaboration tool set in Adobe® InCopy™ 2.0. With InCopy, you can track changed text, and add notes and comments without disturbing line breaks. Later, others on the team can easily identify who.

Adobe (2003). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing>Adobe GoLive

Communicating and Measuring Employee Contribution to Strategy

How do we shift our communication focus to address the challenges of globalization and advancing technology? And how do we prove to senior management that successful communication is the key to navigating this new business environment? In a word: relevance. Our communication must be simpler in content, but more detailed in terms of implementation and process.

Anderson, Chris and Alix Edmiston. Communication World Bulletin (2006). Articles>Management>Financial

Communicating Change to a Technical Organization  

Communications played an important role in a major organizational transformation and outsourcing undertaking by the Information Technology Organization (ITO) of BellSouth Telecommunications. A two-person team was assigned to plan and develop internal and external communications during the project’s 18-month duration. The approach they took was closely related to the process for planning and developing technical communications. An 11-step method resulted and it is now used to improve communications at many levels within the ITO.

Wagnecz, Lorlee E. STC Proceedings (1998). Presentations>Management>Outsourcing

Communicating Corporate Social Responsibility on the Internet: A Case Study of the Top 100 Information Technology Companies in India    

The need for and benefits of proactive and transparent communication about corporate social responsibility (CSR) are widely acknowledged. This study examines CSR communication undertaken by the top 100 information technology (IT) companies in India on their corporate Web sites, with an analytical focus on the dimensions of prominence of communication, extent of information, and style of presentation. The findings indicate that the number of companies with CSR information on their Web sites is strikingly low and that these leading companies do not leverage the Web sites to their advantage in terms of the quantity and style of CSR communication. Although the findings do not necessarily imply absence of CSR action on the part of IT companies in India, they attest to a general lack of proactive CSR communication. The article concludes with managerial implications for CSR communication on corporate Web sites.

Chaudhri, Vidhi and Jian Wang. Management Communication Quarterly (2007). Articles>Management>Business Communication>India

Communicating for Advantage in the Virtual Organization      

This paper looks at the virtual organization in an electronic market environment and the different models of communication and management that may be required. The authors begin by providing some clear definitions of virtual cultures and different models of virtuality that can exist within the electronic market. Degrees of virtuality can be seriously constrained by the extent to which organizations have predefined communication linkages in the marketplace and the extent to which these can be substituted by virtual ones, but also by the intensity of virtual linkages which support the virtual model. Six virtual organizational models are proposed within a dynamic framework of change. In order to realize strategic advantage, virtual organizations must align their management models and communication processes with their virtual culture.

Burn, Janice and Martin Barnett. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication (1988). Careers>Management>Online

Communicating Information or Engaging Your People—How Does Communication Best Support Change?

According to a 1997 survey entitled “The Quality of Working Life” by Professors Les Worrall and Cary Cooper of the Institute of Management, of the 5,000 U.K. managers polled, a majority revealed that they had been affected by organisational change in the last year and failed to see business benefits. When asked about possible improvements, the largest response reflected the need for greater involvement, more listening by senior managers and more honest, two-way communication.

Sparrow, Jane. Communication World Bulletin (2004). Articles>Business Communication>Management>Marketing

Communication Ability as a Predictor of Job Satisfaction in Managerial and Nonmanagerial Positions  

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.

Raphael, Douglas David. Association for Business Communication (2005). Careers>Management>Communication

Communication Analytics: A New Way to Position the Traditional Audit

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.

Gayeski, Diane. Communication World Bulletin (2007). Careers>Management>Communication

Communication Strategies for Implementing Organizational Change  

This work advances a stronger conceptual and empirical understanding of two broad, conceptual communicative treatments for implementing change: programmatic and participatory. These theoretical approaches are elucidated respectively through established communication models, activities, and strategies advanced by previous scholarship within the communication and business disciplines. In addition, conclusions are drawn about the supposed limitations and benefits of using these change implementation approaches in applied settings. This article concludes with potential strategies for advancing for research in this arena.

Russ, Travis L. Association for Business Communication (2008). Articles>Business Communication>Management>Rhetoric

Companies Struggling with Unstructured Content

Firms wrestling with unstructured data such as emails and spreadsheets don't see enterprise content management as the answer to their problems.

Milne, Janine. Computer Business Review (2008). Articles>Content Management>Content Strategy>Metadata

Comparing Apples and Oranges to CMS Software

As ridiculous as that may sound many are getting away with doing it. There are many comparisons of open source CMS software that are popping up that are total garbage. The reviewers are comparing CMS systems that are in 5 to 8 different categories and have 4 different sets of requirements. No wonder they are confused and can't make a choice.

Hiveminds (2006). Articles>Content Management>Software

Comparing Open Source CMSes: Joomla, Drupal and Plone

Open source content management systems can make creating and managing your website a lot easier - and there's no licensing fee involved. But which should you use? We look carefully at Joomla, Drupal, and Plone to compare their strengths and weaknesses.

Bonfield, Brett and Laura Quinn. IdealWare (2007). Articles>Content Management>Software

Comparing UXD Business Models

Once we begin looking at the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of various organizational models, we can almost immediately start brainstorming ways of mitigating the challenges and put policies into place that help improve the strategic impact of UX.

Nieters, Jim and Garett Dworman. UXmatters (2007). Design>User Experience>Management

Competitive Advantage through Employee Engagement

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.

Shaffer, Jim. Communication World Bulletin (2005). Careers>Management>Collaboration>Workplace

Competitive Intelligence: How and Where to Find It

Competitive intelligence is both a product and a process. The product is actionable information -- can be used to take specific actions (e.g. prepare a winning sales proposal). The process is the systematic means of acquiring, analyzing, and evaluating it.

Montague Institute Review (1993). Articles>Knowledge Management>Journalism

Component Content Management in Practice

This white paper looks at the requirements of component content management in some industries and vertical markets. It compares the requirements of component content management with the capabilities of more general content management technologies, notably web content management and document management. It then looks at the technology behind CCMS in depth, and concludes with example applications where CCMS can have the most impact on an enterprise.

Trippe, Bill. Gilbane Report (2004). Articles>Content Management

A Computing Research Repository: Why Not Solve the Problems First?

The Computing Research Repository (CoRR) described by Halpern is potentially a powerful tool for researchers in computing science. In its current form, however, shortcomings exist that restrict its value and that, in the long term, might strongly undermine its usefulness. Important aspects that have insufficiently been taken care of are (1) the quality and consequently the reliability of the material stored, (2) the still restricted submission of material,which implies that other sources have to be consulted by researchers as well, (3) the still unsound financial basis of the project, and (4) the confusion that may easily arise when a preliminary version is stored in the CoRR, while a different final version is published in a journal.

van Loon, A.J. Journal of Computer Documentation (2000). Articles>Knowledge Management>Research>Online

Conducting a Postmortem

A postmortem is a meeting of all members of the project team at the end of the project to identify what went well and should be repeated on future projects; and what did not go well and how to avoid these situations on future projects. In addition, the postmortem should provide time for the members of the project team to thank one another for their contributions. Often during the course of a project, team members become so comfortable working with one another that they do not thank each other for their contributions or acknowledge exceptional work. As a result, team members might not realize that their colleagues appreciate their contributions. The postmortem provides a formal opportunity for team members to offer one another such recognition.

Carliner, Saul. STC Northeast Ohio (2002). Articles>Project Management>TC

Conducting Effective Team Technical Reviews

Mention team technical reviews to a group of tech writers and chances are good that you will either get a loud, collective groan, or the group will vie to tell the best review horror story. On the one hand, technical reviews are a vital part of our jobs because they help us to produce high quality product documents. On the other hand, technical reviews gone wrong are the bane of our existence. The good news is that we have the power to conduct consistently effective technical reviews. This article summarizes why we do reviews and what often goes wrong in reviews, and then summarizes steps to take before, during, and after technical reviews that can help you conduct effective team technical reviews. Although your process and team may differ from what's described here, you can apply the information in part or in whole to improve your current review process.

Brown, M. Katherine 'Kit'. TECHWR-L (2008). Articles>Project Management>Collaboration>Assessment

Connectfulness

In the same way that the word 'truthiness' is not a real word but is gaining usage in our culture, so the word 'connectfulness' offers us in the professional arena a way to express an important aspect of our work. Just as truthiness says more than accuracy and is friendlier than truthfulness, so connectfulness says more than networked and is friendlier and more inclusive than connectedness.

Albing, Bill. Carolina Communique (2006). Articles>Content Management>Collaboration

A Consumer Survey of CMS Vendor Websites

In March 2003, an online survey was conducted of consumer opinion about CMS vendor websites. This was extensively promoted through the CMS mailing lists, and on key CMS websites such as CMS Watch, the Intranet Focus and Step Two Designs sites. In total, 168 responses were made to this survey, representing consumers from across the globe, and in every type of organisation. This briefing provides a high-level summary of the results of the survey.

Robertson, James. Step Two (2003). Design>Content Management>Web Design