Fixed Quotes and Broken Promises

How to tie down the details of a project and protect yourself from unexpected changes that can drag a 'peach project' into the 'pits of despair and financial ruin.'

Juillet, Christopher. Boston Broadside (1990). Articles>Project Management>Planning

Flowcharting Performance-Based Processes and Procedures  

This session distinguishes between analytical- and performance-based flowcharting of process and procedures. The session will present why, how, and when flowcharting is considered superior to text alone, along with defining flowcharts and symbols. The session distinguishes between processes and procedures and the various styles, formats, and trends that have developed historically primarily due to different origins, purposes, and technologies. The session also presents recommended standards for creating flowcharts, and addresses issues on tools, training, and trends.

Urgo, Raymond E. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Project Management>Planning>Workflow

Four-Day Week Challenge

Constantly stressed out? Not enough hours in the day to get things done? Ryan Carson has a theory: your problem is too much work time, not too little.

Carson, Ryan. List Apart, A (2006). Careers>Workplace>Planning

Gantt to Glory: Evolving from Project Management to Successful Web Operations

Is the sheer possession of a PMP intended to be the Holy Grail of successful web projects, known to fail at a startling rate, or simply a way to divorce oneself from whatever outcome may result from the web project?

Podnar, Kristina. Content Wrangler, The (2008). Articles>Web Design>Project Management>Planning

Get Real! Planning Tasks and Activities for Your Usability Test  

Producing usable task-oriented information requires thorough knowledge and understanding of the tasks to be supported. Technical communicators can acquire this knowledge and understanding in a number of ways, each of which has its own strong points and drawbacks.

Grice, Roger A. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Usability>Planning

Growing Your Job as a Technical Communicator: Guidelines for Getting In, Moving Up, and Staying Put  

Two seasoned technical communicators discuss the elements of 'growing their jobs,' using successes and lessons learned to offer practical suggestions for getting in, moving up, and staying put if the company downsizes.

Liebetrau, Suzanne F. and Sallie J. Ortiz. STC Proceedings (1995). Careers>TC>Planning

Helping Each Other into the Future

About 50 NY Metro chapter members and friends gathered at the Parsippany Hilton on Thursday, April 11, to glimpse the immediate future in the world of Web development and online help. The result was a lively meeting with five simultaneous conversations on different aspects of help.

Parker, Anne Kennison. MetroVoice (2002). Articles>TC>Planning

High-Cost Usability Sometimes Makes Sense

Computing the net present value (NPV) lets you estimate the most profitable level of usability investment. For big projects, expensive usability can pay off.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2007). Articles>Usability>Project Management>Planning

How to Plan On-line and Paper Versions of a Software Manual

On projects for which you must produce both on-line and paper documentation, there are many things you should consider before you start.

Kozuma, Bruce. Boston Broadside (1991). Articles>Documentation>Project Management>Planning

Imagination->Innovation->Communication  

As we face an uncertain tomorrow full of challenges for our profession and our world, we should consider what ways to identify opportunities, what emerging trends will affect global businesses, and what new skills must be learned to make us more effective in a brave new world set spiraling in response to technological breakthroughs. Our theme, 'Imagination, Innovation, Communication,' captures the essence of what we do: transform ideas and innovations into a myriad of communication possibilities from technical manuals to virtual Web sites. The theme suggests a successful process with you at the center as an information juggernaut who must make critical choices as you approach a new millennium.

Hawkes, Lory. STC Proceedings (1998). Careers>TC>Planning

Interesting Times, Interesting Measures

We've been living in 'interesting' times, as the saying goes, and many of us feel that we've had about as much interest as we can tolerate, thank you very much. Chapter meeting attendance has been down and the popularity of technical presentations has decreased, while the popularity of career cafes and career management days has increased. In any conversation between three technical communicators, at least one is unemployed, about to be unemployed, or thinking about a career change.

Bailie, Rahel Anne. MetroVoice (2003). Careers>TC>Planning

Jack Molisani on Trends in Technical Communication

Shares some trends in the technical communication industry, arguing that writers need to become hyphenated to move forward and be successful in the future. Molisani owns a technical writing staffing company and also produces the Lavacon conference, which is in New Orleans this year, but is traditionally in Hawaii. He says users aren't concerned about polished language these days; they just want accurate, relevant content.

Molisani, Jack and Tom H. Johnson. Tech Writer Voices (2007). Articles>TC>Planning>Podcasts

Looking Forward to A New Year in Usability

A common theme in most stories is that introducing usability into a company, or even just into your own technical communication work, is often a long-term effort. In my own experience, my first effort to introduce usability at my then employer took almost two years to move from a few isolated activities and providing occasional design advice to interface developers into a fully recognized user interface design role.

Bachmann, Karen L. Usability Interface (2004). Articles>Usability>Planning

Managing Taxonomies Strategically

Taxonomies are structures that provide a way of classifying things -- living organisms, products, books -- into a series of hierarchical groups to make them easier to identify, study, or locate. Taxonomies consist of two parts -- structures and applications. Structures consist of the categories (or terms) themselves and the relationships that link them together. Applications are the navigation tools available to help users find information.

Montague Institute Review (2001). Articles>Information Design>Planning

Managing Your Career  

We as Technical Communicators must take more control over our careers. This session provides a quiz to rate career management progress and then offers practical suggestions, specifically for to the Technical Communicator to manage a career effectively. Topics such as career plans, networking, increasing professional visibility and contact tracking tools are discussed. Activity includes writing a career plan.

Bailey, Cheryl and Gena Belcher. STC Proceedings (1995). Careers>TC>Planning

Measure Twice, Cut Once

Acting without planning can be expensive, and because of the potential cost of poorly thought-out actions, we should not only plan, but plan twice.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Geoff-Hart.com (2000). Articles>Project Management>Planning>User Centered Design

A Model for Transforming STC

This update shares the organizational model developed in five key areas to determine what the 'ideal state' of STC might look like in the future.

STC Transformation (2004). Articles>TC>Planning

Network Resource Planning

Building larger networks implies higher infrastructure and maintenance costs, and increased sophistication. Any additions or modifications to a large operational network necessitate a plan, which should be devised after understanding existing weaknesses and vulnerabilities, and identifying current and future needs. This article will introduce the fundamental concepts of network resource planning (NRP), a methodology used to design, upgrade, and expand computer communication networks, and will focus on how such a methodology can be applied in enterprise networks.

Acosta, Beatriz and Kostas Pentikousis. ACM Crossroads (2003). Articles>Technology>Planning

Organizing Your Professional Life  

There are specific things you can do to organize your professional life. Organization starts with planning. Maintain a “to do” list and a calendar, plan your day accordingly, and follow through on those plans. Allow time to deal with occurrences that are beyond your control. Do what you can to minimize interruptions. Limit physical clutter by either throwing things away or putting them away. Reduce mental clutter by forgetting about what you don’t need to deal with right away. Remember that you can control your time and your life.

Hansen, Lauren Y. STC Proceedings (1996). Careers>Workplace>Planning

Organizing Your Training

An on-site training requires a lot of logistical planning. If you are hosting or providing the training yourself, then you have the ability to control many of these logistics. If another party is hosting your training, you must communicate with the host to ensure that everything is in place to allow the training to occur effectively. Begin planning for your training as far in advance as possible. Trainings that are organized and thrown together at the last minute are rarely successful.

WebAIM (2004). Articles>Education>Planning

An Overview of the STC Transformation Initiative

because technical information is ever changing, we accept the fact that our work will be continually various, constantly in flux. It's just the nature of the beast. This is the essence of the purpose of the STC national organization's transformation initiative: Keeping up with the changing times.

MetroVoice (2004). Articles>TC>Planning>STC

Overview of Transformation  

The Transformation Team consists of STC board members and a number of chapter and SIG leaders. The team was formed in response to concerns heard over the past several years from many of you. Some of these concerns have arisen from changes in the business world, such as globalization and the downturn in the economy.

Teich, Thea. STC Transformation (2004). Articles>TC>Planning>STC

Paper Prototyping

As interfaces become ever more complex and development schedules seem to get shorter and shorter, you may find it useful to give up your user-interface modeling software for awhile in favor of something simpler. All you need is paper, pens, scissors, and your imagination.

Medero, Shawn. List Apart, A (2007). Design>Information Design>Planning

Performing Publications Needs Assessments  

A publications needs assessment is a way to identify and analyze documentation and publishing needs for a project, group or company. The technical communicator can use these assessments to ensure that the proper documentation and publishing services are provided. This paper describes a four step approach to performing publications needs assessments.

Devlin, John T. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Documentation>Planning>Assessment

Planning a Web Project

One of the most important aspects of information design is the planning process. Unfortunately, the planning process is one of the first items to get cut when schedules are tight. Projects that have skipped this step often suffer from problems that are difficult to fix once the site has been developed. For example, sites that have not been planned in advance often contain information that was added randomly and inconsistently, related topics don't link to one another, and readers have a frustrating experience navigating the site.

Kerr, Amy. Orange Journal, The (2001). Design>Information Design>Planning