Project Management is the discipline of planning, organizing, and managing resources to bring about the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives.
#30314
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
#30441
How to Present a Business Case for Web Site Investments
How can you convince others that Web investments are a wise decision in a slow economy?
Costello, Rick. STC Chicago (2003). Articles>Web Design>Project Management>Business Case
#25950
How to Ruin a Writing Project in 10 Easy Steps
Does your job involve writing? Here's a surefire recipe for bringing on writer's block and making the whole process seem so onerous that you'll vow never to put pen to paper again.
Bennaco (2004). Articles>Project Management>Writing
#29653
Every technical communicator must develop a set of management skills appropriate to the task in order to excel as the leader of the communication team. This calls for multiple skills including being part diplomat, part technical expert, part salesman, and part turtle.
Bailey, Elizabeth. STC Proceedings (2005). Careers>TC>Project Management
#27971
I Wonder What This Button Does
We've all lost work to file overwrites and other minor disasters. There are remedies--and as Mike West explains, you don't have to have awe-inspiring technical skills to take advantage of them.
West, Mike. List Apart, A (2006). Articles>Project Management>Technology
#21431
If They Don't Test, Don't Hire Them
The single best indicator as to the overall competence of an interaction design team is their plan for user testing. If you are presented with no plan or a sort of vague 'and we'll eventually do some user testing,' you may want to back off and look at other resources. If, on the other hand, you are given a proposal outlining repeated design and test cycles, you are dealing with people who know exactly what they are doing.
Tognazzini, Bruce. Nielsen Norman Group (2000). Articles>Project Management>Usability
#28561
Implementing a CMS: A Game-Changing Corporate Initiative 
The success of a CM project depends not just on process management, but on change management as well. Discover the ways that an organization can help its staff overcome initial resistance to change.
Hamer, Emma C. Intercom (2007). Articles>Content Management>Project Management
#28559
Implementing a Content Management System
Before you begin a pilot project using a CMS, you must understand how it will work. Read on to learn how to define your information model, set up your folder structure, create a metadata scheme, assign roles and responsibilities, define your workflow, and measure results.
Hackos, JoAnn T. Intercom (2007). Articles>Content Management>Project Management
#27324
Improving Management of Your Business
All companies have business processes that can be improved. Most companies can benefit from automation or further automation of solutions.
Pires, Halstatt. Ezine Articles (2006). Careers>Management>Project Management>Workflow
#24451
Improving Publication Quality Through Project Management
A methodology for developing high-quality software developed by the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie-Mellon University can also be applied to developing technical publications. This workshop addresses several aspects of this methodology using various project management techniques. By bringing your development process under better control, these techniques will ensure a more uniform quality in your publications.
Firman, Anthony H. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Project Management>Documentation
#13763
Web developers are a tough lot, willing to brave constantly changing technologies, competing “standards,” and tools that are often clumsy and dull. Yet brave as we are, two little words strike fear in the hearts of even the boldest of us, making us consider a change to a less stressful job-air traffic control, perhaps. Scope creep threatens to undermine all our hard work, causing rewrite after rewrite of carefully crafted markup and code. In short, scope creep is evil. That’s the prevailing wisdom. But consider the results of four studies done over the last five years that show that as little as 20% of corporate software projects are successful. Prevailing, it may be, but is it wisdom?
Helms, Hal. List Apart, A (2002). Design>Project Management>Web Design
#21735
Information Architecture and Ulcers
Being an information architect can be stressful. There are certain points in the design process that are more stress-inducing than others.
Morville, Peter. Argus Center (2000). Articles>Information Design>Project Management
#30510
Information Metrics: Keeping Your Writing Projects On Track
Keeping information metrics for documentation projects gives managers the ability to more accurately estimate future projects. Publications departments can develop their own tools or they can use existing tools to track such things as page size, hours-per-page spent writing, illustrating, editing, and producing manuals; and the dependencies of each manual. This kind of information can help to determine development schedules, show how late changes affect the documentation process, and accurately determine what it will take to complete quality documentation on time and within budget.
Gordon, Judy L. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Documentation>Project Management>Methods
#29913
Information Modeling: A Practical Approach
Information models are a critical component of single sourcing, enterprise content management, and dynamic content management. The information model is your blueprint for the effective writing, structuring, and delivery of reusable content. This session explains how to design information models, including information product models and element models. It also explains the role of metadata and how to effectively design it.
Rockley, Ann. STC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Information Design>Content Management>Project Management
#23988
During recessions, uncertainty prevails, and like a driver trying to weave his way along a mountain road in heavy fog, many businesspeople eventually tire and just pull their businesses over to what seems like a safe embankment, turn off their engines of innovation and progress, and wait for the fog to lift. But how long can one afford to sit on the roadside? At what point does it become riskier to do nothing than to proceed with caution? One has to wonder if there's a better way, a way to keep moving forward in measured, confident increments, rather than eventually creating an additional element of uncertainty by deferring innovation altogether.
Fleck, Pat. Cooper Interaction Design (2002). Design>Project Management
#24958
International Project Management
Declining domestic markets have opened global market opportunities to our entrepreneurs, A research has been made to determine if foreign clients view American project managers with suspicion. Some major problems encountered were: the lack of sociocultural sensitivities and failure to 'do our homework:' prior to taking on a foreign presence as an international project manager. Communications and inadequate foreign language knowledge are major problems. Overly aggressive behavior as guests in a host nation without respect to their social cultures can be selfdefeating. You can win!
Hamlett, James G. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Project Management>International
#22082
Intranet Teams: a Leadership and Coaching Role
The intranet team often becomes viewed as a gatekeeper or bottleneck that does little more than say 'no' to business units. The business then reacts by rebelling against this centralised control, or simply working around the intranet team. There is a better way. Intranet teams should instead look to playing a leadership and coaching role in the organisation. These two approaches provide a range of techniques for encouraging organisational change and supporting staff activities.
Robertson, James. Step Two (2004). Design>Web Design>Collaboration>Project Management
#28611
Introduction to Agile Methods and Practices 
Rally's Hubert Smits provides a broad introduction to concepts of Agile software development and Agile methods. The talk is based on his experience as an Agile coach and Certified Scrum Master. Concepts that are known from waterfall or plan-driven development are transformed to an Agile perspective. Examples are release and iteration planning, progress reporting, meeting formats and scaling projects from 10 people teams to 300 people teams.
Smits, Hubert. Rally Software Development (2006). Presentations>Project Management>Agile
#27610
Introduction to the Diagrams of UML 2.0
Understanding the thirteen diagrams of UML 2.x is an important part of understanding OO development. Although there is far more to modeling than just the UML the reality is the UML defines the standard modeling artifacts when it comes to object technology.
#25153
Is Your Designer Costing You Money?
The pitfalls of using a graphic designer that is not experienced can have financial and emotional consequences. Designers must understand what software program to use for the task at hand. A designer that is not experienced can cost the customer time, money and unnecessary stress.
Reichel, Gary. Design, Typography and Graphics (2004). Design>Project Management>Graphic Design
#24957
ISO Procedure Development: Using Kickoff Meetings as a Project Management Tool
ISO procedure manuals are sophisticated, dynamic documents that are developed as the result of a complex process. This panel focuses on an often overlooked but critical aspect of project management—the kickoff meeting. Kickoff meetings bring together all the key people and issues from the beginning, thus mitigating rework and problems later in the project. Kickoff meetings can be used to introduce and manage the ISO procedure development process: empowering the ISO procedure-development team, gathering information to capture best practice, and reviewing and validating information.
McCulley, Stephanie and Janice J. Rowan. STC Proceedings (1994). Careers>Project Management>Standards
#28645
Sizing UCD projects presents special challenges to usability practitioners and consultants. Each project and UCD methodology comes with its own set of variables that makes it difficult to accurately estimate resource requirements and completion times.
Usability Body of Knowledge (2007). Articles>Usability>User Centered Design>Project Management
#31715
It's In the Numbers: Using Metrics to Plan Documentation Projects
It's in the numbers. Creating documentation is not an exact science, yet as communication leaders, we are expected to provide real estimates for how much time we need to document a project, or what we can produce given a predetermined timeline.
Yundt, Margie and Sherry McMenemy. Writing Assistance (2006). Articles>Project Management>Documentation>Assessment
#24903
Juggling or Struggling: The Art of Managing Online and Hardcopy Documentation
While company budgets are increasing little or none, the responsibilities of technical writers continue to multiply as they are expected to produce online help as well as hard-copy documentation in short time periods. This demonstration explains how technical writers at Computer Power, Inc. produce usable online and hard-copy documentation from one source file. Participants will learn how to plan the file, create appropriate graphics, and use macros to convert text and other information for use in online help.
Bates, Michael P. and Catherine Cooper. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Documentation>Project Management
#29373
Keep Pesky Business Types at Bay by Focusing on the Strategic Goal
If you have ever been forced to deal with business types who have no technical know-how, then you know how these types can work against IT's progress. Here's how to improve your business/IT communication by concentrating on the strategic goals.
Hardin, Ken. TechRepublic (2003). Careers>Business Communication>Project Management>Collaboration
