Project Management is the discipline of planning, organizing, and managing resources to bring about the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives.
#23622
This paper identifies challenges for obtaining managerial buy-in for a user-centered design process using performance tasks. Initially, it presents lessons learned from a case study. Next, it provides strategies (leadership, persuasion, organizational conflict, active listening, and teamwork) for obtaining buy-in from work team and their constituencies. Last, it concludes with recommendations for obtaining buy-in from managers.
Carey, Jennifer and Gloria A. Reece. STC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Project Management>User Centered Design
#19949
Technical communicators are accustomed to being thrown into the breech when their employers or clients confront severe business challenges. Rather than rush into the fray, we stand a better chance of tilting the business outcomes in our companies’ or clients’ favor if we remain disciplined under fire. A good way to achieve that discipline is to structure the communications team in a manner best suited to collaborative ventures and then implement those ventures in an orderly process called integrated strategic communication. This workshop begins with a brief explanation of how the Communications Department at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control - Orlando (LMMFC-O) uses integrated strategic communication to defend the company’s existing business base or seek new business in the fiercely competitive defense industry. Workshop participants will work in teams to complete practical hands-on exercises applying the process of integrated strategic communication to scenarios involving pressing business/technical communication challenges.
Voss, Daniel W. and William C. Wiese. STC Proceedings (2001). Careers>Management>Collaboration
#31622
Budgeting for Communication Research
To determine what amount to budget, discuss with an outside consultant the ballpark ranges for the types of research you want to conduct. Use the high-end numbers, plus estimated expenses, as your first budget recommendation. After the budget is approved, ask the consultant for a written, detailed proposal that will match the final amount that was allocated.
Sinickas, Angela D. Sinickas Communications (1999). Articles>Management>Financial>Research
#13057
Build a Business Case for Online Learning Projects 
Upper-level decision makers seem to thrive on 'what if?' Here's how it works: Line workers, managers, and independent consultants enthusiastically propose a project, and executives shred it apart with 'what ifs?' and 'have you considereds?' In reality, such questions indicate that a project proposal is incomplete. The people who prepared it may have assumed an overly optimistic or pessimistic result, overlooked relevant alternatives, or may not have considered relevant component costs. And when it comes to technology projects--such as online learning development -- executives may kick 'what if' into high gear. Though the benefits of such projects seem self-evident to the converted, the possibility of a high price tag and organizational disruption sobers many executives considering the online plunge.
Carliner, Saul. ASTD (2000). Articles>Management>Proposals
#28196
A triple-barreled question facing many enterprises today is whether to use an application-building tool or 'framework' to build a content management system (CMS); to buy one of the many out-of-the-box finished products in use by major Web sites; or to simply rent a CMS from an application service provider (ASP) and avoid the headache of running an application server in the enterprise's data center.
Doyle, Bob. EContent (2004). Articles>Content Management>Software
#27280
Building a Biodiversity Content Management System for Science, Education, and Outreach 
We describe the system architecture and data template design for the Animal Diversity Web (http://www.animaldiversity.org), an online natural history resource serving three audiences: 1) the scientific community, 2) educators and learners, and 3) the general public. Our architecture supports highly scalable, flexible resource building by combining relational and object-oriented databases. Content resources are managed separately from identifiers that relate and display them. Websites targeting different audiences from the same database handle large volumes of traffic. Content contribution and legacy data are robust to changes in data models. XML and OWL versions of our data template set the stage for making ADW data accessible to other systems.
Parr, C.S., R. Espinosa, T. Dewey, G. Hammond and P. Myers. Data Science Journal (2005). Articles>Content Management>Scientific Communication
#19382
Building a More Effective Documentation Group
Suggests ten ways that managers of technical communicators can make their departments more efficient, effective, and valuable to their companies.
Smith, Susan E. Intercom (2003). Careers>Management>Documentation
#21557
Managing a Web site project typically does not follow any clearly defined methods or standards of practice. Although there is a lot of 'how to build a site' information out there, very little on how to manage a Web project actually exists. But a project site could be just the answer you are looking for.
Leonard-Wilkinson, Theresa A. W-edge Design (2001). Design>Project Management>Web Design>Workflow
#23331
Building a Technical Communication Program
I address myself briefly to two questions that will likely confront anyone who considers increasing the number of technical writing programs. First, what is the market for technical communicators? Second, how does one go about setting up a program?
Pearsall, Thomas E. ADE Bulletin (1982). Articles>Education>Management
#21248
Building a Vision of Design Success
A common view of vision is that it's something handed down by a leader to the troops. When a redesign goes awry, the troops complain, 'There was no vision.' But the problem goes deeper than either scenario; the problem is that there was no shared vision.
Wodtke, Christina. Boxes and Arrows (2003). Design>Web Design>Management>Collaboration
#31947
Building and Managing Virtual Teams
Chris Nagele’s run Wildbit, creators of hosted Subversion app Beanstalk, for 8 years virtually. He lives in Philadelphia and his team is all over the world. So, he knows a few things about virtual teams and shares them in this article.
Nagele, Chris. Vitamin (2008). Articles>Management>Collaboration>Online
#14586
Building Knowledge Assets for the Advancement of Science
As I read more and more about knowledge management, I came to realize that it is a new name for what the science community has been doing for a long, long time. In fact, a working definition of science might be, simply, the management of knowledge resulting from observational and experimental evidence. One could well argue that the science community has been doing knowledge management for centuries.
Warnick, Walter L. OSTI (2000). Articles>Knowledge Management
#31546
Building Successful Teams in the Midst of Transition
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.
McKee, Thomas W. Communication World Bulletin (2003). Careers>Management>Collaboration
#31828
Building the UX Dreamteam - Part 2
Skills in research, information architecture, interaction design, graphic design and writing define the recognized areas of User Experience design. However, there still remains much to discuss about what makes a UX team dreamy. Each UX Dreamteam has a finely tuned mix of skills and qualities, as varied as the environments in which they operate. Part two will address whether a person has the right ‘hard’ skills and ‘soft’ qualities like communication style, creativity and leadership ability to fit your particular organizational context. We’ll also touch on the quality of an individual’s personality that may or may not complement the others on your team.
Colfelt, Anthony. Boxes and Arrows (2008). Careers>Management>User Experience>Collaboration
#21082
This is a business case for usability in an organization. It is based on academic research, industrial research, case studies, consulting experience, and common knowledge found in the usability community.
Rhodes, John S. WebWord (2001). Articles>Usability>Management>Business Case
#28649
Business Decisions in a Digital Enterprise
All about automating, managing and aligning business decisions in a modern, digital, agile enterprise.
#20220
You've mastered Photoshop, Flash, PHP, CSS, 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.
Kramer, Scott. List Apart, A (2002). Careers>Management>Web Design
#22041
A template to describe a company's business plan, in Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat formats.
Tech-Writer. Resources>Business Communication>Management>Writing
#24180
Business Plans Build Good Business
Developing a business plan—without it, your independent practice will flounder.
Frick, Elizabeth G. 'Bette'. Intercom (2004). Careers>Management>Planning>Business Communication
#14595
Business Roundtable: Are You Ready to Grow Your Business? 
In 2001 and beyond, do you plan to be the boss? If you have the entrepreneurial itch, running your own business may be central to your career plan. What practical, professional and emotional pitfalls are in store? Four successful business owners share their experiences and discuss how to turn potential pitfalls into challenging, lucrative adventures.
Fredrickson, Lola, Sheila Jones, Stephanie L. Rosenbaum and Donna Sakson. STC Proceedings (2000). Careers>Management>TC
#31414
Buttress Your Benchmarking Efforts
A smart company understands that a favorable reputation improves its bottom line. From a PR perspective, a strong reputation acts as good will, giving you the benefit of the doubt with both journalists and the general public. To find out how strong your company's reputation is, it is helpful to compare it with the reputations of other companies, also known as benchmarking.
Merlin, Matthew. Business Communication World (2005). Articles>Management>Public Relations>Assessment
#14168
Buyer's Guide to Content-Management Tools
As your sites become more critical and complex, you need tools to automate management--and you need them now. Enter the new generation of Web site content-management products--a seasoned batch of tools and systems ready to help you meet the challenges of the brave new Web world. There's a wide range of products out there, and while they overlap somewhat in functionality, the phrase Web site content management means different things to different people. For some, content management is really asset management--that is, a system to keep track of media assets, such as graphic elements, text and video. More commonly, however, Web site content management refers to a set of integrated tools that helps manage some portion of the whole range of site development and deployment tasks. Although no single product can do everything, many offer deployment/publishing, versioning and rollback, site design and page authoring tools, link checking, access control, change routing and notification, and site-visualization tools among their features.
Hoffman, Richard. Network Computing (2000). Articles>Content Management>Software
#20753
Cadence Design Systems, Inc., Knowledge Transfer Plan Benchmarking
Describes the motivation behind a Knowledge Transfer Plan benchmarking study conducted by JoAnn Hackos and Comtech. Bradbury wanted to compare Cadence’s publications and training organizations to other organizations’. She has integrated the findings into plans for the new year. JoAnn Hackos describes the benefits of participating in benchmarking activities. They include: peer and professional contact, the exchange of best practices within the field, understanding how other groups deal with the similar issues, and so on. Dr. Hackos introduces her partnerbased model of benchmarking in which companies cosponsor the studies, bringing increased participation at less costs.
Bradbury, Julie and JoAnn T. Hackos. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Knowledge Management>Usability
#25123
Calculating RoI Using Industry Metrics
Why prove our value; how value is measured; who decides what to measure.
Bailie, Rahel Anne. STC Region 7 Proceedings (2002). Articles>Management
#23056
Calculating the Cost of a Large-Scale Web Site
A well-designed information architecture with intuitive organization, labeling, navigation, and indexing systems can significantly reduce the amount of time that users spend blundering through the hierarchies of Web sites and intranets. How much is this time-savings worth? The case is clearest for intranets where the users are your employees.
Morville, Peter. Semantic Studios (1997). Design>Web Design>Content Management>Usability
