ACT NOW: A Six-Step Crisis Communication Strategy  

Because a crisis by nature catches people unprepared, every organization must have a crisis communication strategy firmly in place to guide those involved through the rough, uncharted waters. An effective strategy is a what I call A-C-T N-O-W: (1) Anticipate disaster before a crisis, using risk management techniques. (2) Care about people affected. (3) Tell what you know immediately. (4) Note your next steps. (5) Offer help to reinforcements. (5) Write press kits and other pieces of public information. Since crisis mismanagement can lead to the end of the company, effective preparation for a crisis may well save your company’s life.

Reimold, Cheryl. STC Proceedings (1995). Presentations>Management>Risk Communication>Crisis Communication

Agile Project Management - Reliable Innovation

This webinar discusses how Agile Project Management (APM) excels on projects in which new, risky technologies are incorporated; requirements are volatile and evolve; time-to-market is critical; and high quality must be maintained.

Highsmith, Jim. Rally Software Development (2005). Presentations>Project Management>Agile

The Agile/Waterfall Cooperative  

In this tutorial, attendees will learn to factor their company's business needs into their existing Agile procedures, and management will learn how to begin the investigative work of determining how to streamline these requirements and activities so that they don't hamper the project.

Sliger, Michele. Rally Software Development (2006). Presentations>Project Management>Agile

Assessing the Maturity Grade of Policies and Procedures Programs  

Policies and Procedures (P and P) refers to the types of communication about an organization’s internal operating practices. A P and P program refers to the context in which an organization develops and manages its P and P communications. Because a P and P program is an on-going investment, its role and value to an organization should be assessed. A P and P program must provide performance-based communication, using performancebased means, for an organization that is performance oriented. Urgo and Associates devised a model to assess the maturity of P and P programs. The model consists of a questionnaire and matrix that work together in measuring and describing four grades (levels) of maturity according to five functions commonly found in P and P programs.

Urgo, Raymond E. STC Proceedings (1998). Presentations>Management>Policies and Procedures

Authoring Content for Multi-Purpose Publishing  

This presentation reviews the process used to develop documentation for a new software product.

Dumba, Cheryl, Fedeliza Espiritu-Lopez and Pam Barg. STC Region 7 Proceedings (2002). Presentations>Content Management>Single Sourcing

Breaking Up Is Hard to Do: Decentralizing a Doc Group  

Re-engineering — a word that strikes fear into the hearts of middle-management. Our company was hit by reengineering fever in 1995–6, and word came down that we were to break up our comfortable little documentation group and distribute the writers among product development teams. We did it, and we did it right. In this paper, we · Review the thinking and planning that went into the conversion of a 30-person, centralized, corporatewide documentation group into a decentralized, loosely affiliated community of technical writers. · Describe the implementation of our plans and some of the pitfalls we encountered and overcame. · Share an evaluation of the success of the reorganization, and some tips that we learned along the way.

Kove, Jennifer and David Drexler. STC Proceedings (1998). Presentations>Management>Collaboration

Collaborative Writing In Segmentalist Organizations: Commitments For Team Success  

Many large, hierarchical organizations are segmentalist in their approach to management. Nonetheless, such organizations are capable of supporting integrated, team approaches to particular types of communication problems. For such approaches to be successful, however, there must be strong managerial commitments to team support. This paper discusses how committed leadership, specific production guidelines, and empowerment enhanced the activities of an Air Force writing team assembled to help revise and edit Air Force Policy Directives containing corporate level guidance on a variety of topics.

Rice, Rodney P. and James Waller. STC Proceedings (1994). Presentations>Management>Collaboration

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

Content Management and Information Architecture

Content management is information architecture writ large.

Boiko, Bob. ASIST (2001). Presentations>Content Management>Information Design

Content Management for Single Sourcing  

Content management is becoming a critical component of single sourcing. It provides a method for managing our single source materials and ensuring that information can be easily retrieved for reuse. This session explains what a content management system will do for you and how to use it effectively.

Rockley, Ann. STC Proceedings (2001). Presentations>Content Management>Single Sourcing

Corporate 101  

Documentation contributes to customer goodwill and can increase sales.

Graham, Bonnie. STC India (2003). Presentations>Management

Creating Single Source Documents with FrameMaker  

A discussion of how to think about FrameMaker templates for single source documents.

Knopf, David A. Knopf Online (2001). Presentations>Content Management>Single Sourcing>Adobe FrameMaker

Creative Ways to Reward Employees and Improve the Quality of their Deliverables  

This panel discussion shows how managers of small, medium, and large technical writing teams use rewards and recognition to: motivate teams to improve their work quality; recognize individuals as opposed to teams; recognize remote team members; retain employees; create a positive work culture.

Murphy, John, Barbara A. Giammona, Ilana Rosenshein, Patrick Reed-Reimer, Taryn Light and Gloria Reisman. STC Proceedings (2001). Presentations>Management

Decision Making: A Missing Facet of Effective Documentation  

The old school of software interface design and document writing took the view that if the user could find the information someplace, the user could use it. But simply sticking in details ignores how readers access and process information.

Albers, Michael J. ACM SIGDOC (1996). Presentations>Documentation>Management

Decision Support Systems for Environmental Management: Web-Based Communication Modules to Enhance Public Participation  

Nature provides important basic functions for society. Expert systems for integrated knowledge management, so-called decision support systems (DSSs), are tools to manage vegetation, air, soil, and water, and to assure functional integrity of ecosystems, e.g. river basins. Over the past decade sustainability has became the accepted norm to manage our life support resources. This concept is based on responsibility to the “Other” and on participatory consensus-forming dialogues leading to stakeholder models; before, the predominant school of thought has been utilitarianism. Scientists, engineers and technical communicators are challenged to develop feasible technologies to facilitate management, for example to supplement DSSs with virtual libraries and web-forums.

Kaempf, Charlotte. STC Proceedings (2001). Presentations>Web Design>Management

Designing Single Source Materials  

Timelines for developing documentation are getting shorter and budgets are getting smaller. This means that we have to find more efficient ways of developing documentation. One way is to consider single-sourcing your information for multiple media (paper, online), multiple types of documentation (user documentation, Help, training), multiple users and reuse of information for multiple products. While this process takes a lot of up-front planning it can significantly decrease your costs and development times. This session looks at the process for designing and creating single-source materials for multiple media, users, or types of documentation.

Rockley, Ann and JoAnn T. Hackos. STC Proceedings (1999). Presentations>Content Management>Single Sourcing

Developing a Content Management Team for Your Intranet    

What is the overall process? Who are the players? What are their best uses?

Boiko, Bob. SLA (2002). Presentations>Content Management>Collaboration

DSDM: Go for the Nine  

This presentation reviews the benefits, principles and history of DSDM (Dynamic Systems Development Method).

Tabaka, Jean. Rally Software Development (2006). Presentations>Project Management>Agile

An Ecological Approach to Design

This talk will explain how to use ecological design, which is an expansion of ethnography, to leverage both the rich local information from case studies, and a wider sociological perspective to take account of global realities.

Nardi, Bonnie A. Argus Center (2000). Presentations>Information Design>Knowledge Management

EMPI Digital Library National Convention - 2007

Established in 2005, KnowGenesis Online Library for Technical Communication (www.knowgenesis.org/tc) is India's first online repository dedicated to accelerate knowledge sharing and promote self-learning in the field of technical communication. The library is available free of cost and require one time free registration to access the available material. The popularity and success rate of the library can be determined by the fact that within a year of its launch, it not only attracted more than 24000 visitors and gained more than 1500 subscribers, but also increased the volume of the hosted content from few documents to more than 2000 important documents, presentations, tutorials and links. KnowGenesis library presents a unique case for repository designers to study the complex design and implementation process that contributed to the stability and overall success rate of the online library. This paper not only shares the designing and implementation challenges faced by the knowgenesis team, but also presents the approach used to match the user requirements with the library design. Based on the lessons learned during the process, the paper also presents specific set of guidelines and recommends methodologies that can provide critical assistance for developing and managing medium and large scale repositories

Kudesia, Saurabh. KnowGenesis IJTC (2007). Presentations>Information Design>Knowledge Management>Technical Writing

Ethical Insights on XML and Single Sourcing  

Newer, more efficient technology for developing and disseminating information is rolling our way at a rapid pace. And, as always, we’re ready and eager to give new technology a try. Today, we’re investing in XML. But what is the ethical impact of this investment? And how should it aid the quest to align processes with technical capability? This paper focuses on the ethical accountability inherent in XML deployment and proposes an ethical platform for investing in this new technology.

Wiles, Debbie. STC Proceedings (2001). Presentations>Content Management>Ethics>XML

Five Levels of Planning  

The purpose of this presentation is to learn how to plan Agile projects from product vision all the way to daily stand-up and to feel the effect when 100 people prioritize, estimate and commit the plans for a major delivery.

Tabaka, Jean and Hubert Smits. Rally Software Development (2006). Presentations>Project Management>Agile

The Four C's Leadership Model  

Hesitation stems from fear that no one will follow.

Milkovich, Anne. STC Region 7 Proceedings (2002). Presentations>Management