book

Information Development: Managing Your Documentation Projects, Portfolio, and People

Name: Information Development: Managing Your Documentation Projects, Portfolio, and People
Author: JoAnn T. Hackos PhD
ISBN: 9780471777113

by JoAnn T. Hackos PhD

December 2006

Intermediate to advanced

624 pages

19h 42m

English

Wiley

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Copyright
About the Author
Credits
Preface
Innovation in project managementInnovation in information developmentInnovation in technologyInnovation in staffingInnovation in portfolio managementReading this book
Acknowledgments
1. The Framework
1. An Introduction to Information-Development Management
Best Practices in Information-Development ManagementBest Practice—Understanding your many roles as an information-development managerDevelop as a middle managerOperate as a professionalHandle the balancing actDevelop a Balanced ScorecardBest Practice—Recognizing the need to build a mature organizationDetermine your current process-maturity levelBest Practice—Developing an information-management strategyAlign with corporate objectivesOne solution does not fit all projectsBest Practice—Ensuring that your projects are managed efficiently and effectivelyTake ownership of your projectsPut strong project management practices in placePrioritize levels of management by project typeMake time for innovationMonitor project management successes and failuresSummary
2. The Information Process Maturity Model
The Information Process Maturity ModelWhat is the IPMM?How did it get started?An IPMM assessmentWhat are the five levels?Maturity Levels of the IPMMLevel 0: ObliviousLevel 1: Ad hocIndividual initiative in Level 1 organizationsCentralizing productionLevel 2: RudimentaryPreparing a Level 2 organization for content managementMaking content-management decisionsCentralizing productionTiming the effortLevel 3: Organized and repeatableStarting smallLevel 4: Managed and sustainableInnovation in designLevel 5: OptimizingDefining an optimizing organizationCharacteristics of a Level 5 organizationA Level 5 technology solutionChanges to the IPMMMergers and acquisitionsOffshore information developmentDemands for increased productivity and reductions in forceKey Characteristics of the IPMMBest Practice—Organizational structureBest Practice—Information planningTopic-based architectures facilitate early planningBest Practice—Estimating and schedulingEstimating future project resourcesRequesting new resourcesFunding an innovationPerforming a value analysisBest Practice—Quality assuranceContent reviewsTesting information against the productEditorial reviewsBest Practice—Hiring and trainingHiring a jack-of-all-tradesHiring for specializationHiring for collaborationHiring in a new global environmentBest Practice—Information designWhat is information design?How does information design happen?Excellent information design requires customer researchExcellent information design requires exposure to design innovations in the communityMeasuring the success of an innovative design ideaIntroducing innovation to your teamBest Practice—Cost controlBest Practice—Quality managementBeyond quality assurance and information designWhat is the essence of quality management?Customer studiesManaging for quality includes knowing about the competitionManaging for quality includes responding to customers directlyPartnering with customer supportPromoting quality in your larger organizationNew Characteristics of the IPMMCollaborationChange managementSummary
2. Portfolio Management
3. Introduction to Portfolio Management
Why Portfolio Management Is CriticalBenefits of portfolio managementBarriers to portfolio managementBest Practices in Managing Your Strategic PortfolioBest Practice—Creating and managing your project portfolioConducting a project inventoryIdentifying the projects that are truly strategicCategorize the projects and set prioritiesManaging your portfolioBest Practice—The Balanced Scorecard: Translating strategy into actionThe four perspectives of the Balanced ScorecardWhy use a Balanced Scorecard approach?Financial perspectivesCustomer perspectiveInternal business process perspectiveLearning and growth perspectiveOutcome measures are not enoughExample of a Balanced ScorecardSummary

4. Managing an Information-Development Budget
Best Practices in Budget ManagementBest Practice—Understanding your operating costsComparing your costs with other parts of the organizationEstimating project costsBenchmarking project costsBest Practice—Managing your operating budgetConsidering the “no budget” organizationBudgeting by headcountBudgeting by projectsBudgeting by departmentDepartment budgets by taxationUsing budgets to encourage prioritizationSummary
5. Understanding the Technology Adoption Life Cycle
Best Practices in Managing the Information–Development Life CycleBest Practice—Positioning information development to match the needs of the technology adoption life cycleInnovators and early adoptersEarly and late majorityThe role of information in developing the whole productAnalyzing the products in the technology adoption life cycleBest Practice—Funding information development for the majority marketSummary
6. Developing Relationships with Customers and Stakeholders
Best Practices in Customer and Stakeholder RelationshipsBest Practice—Analyzing customer information requirementsBest Practice—Establishing a customer partnershipHow to implement customer partneringSelecting customer partnersPlanning the format and focus of each working sessionProviding homework for group participantsFacilitating the working sessionsDuration of the studyRecognizing customer participationDeveloping product prototypesReporting the results and recommendations of the working sessionsBenefits of customer partnering to you and your customersBest Practice—Analyzing internal stakeholdersBest Practice—Establishing stakeholder partnershipsDefining measurable business goals and objectivesDefining resources and responsibilitiesDeveloping a program of activities for each partnerResolving conflictsSummary
7. Developing User Scenarios
Best Practices in Developing User ScenariosBest Practice—Cataloging user roles and their information needsSurvey your customers for your catalog of rolesReview sample user-role analysesStudy the information needs of each roleConduct a professional user and task analysisBest Practice—Understanding the users’ information agendasTypical user scenario at Federal ExpressBest Practice—Using user scenarios to develop your Information ModelUnderstand the context of information useDevelop user scenarios to create a new information architectureInsurance company office workersHealthcare and administrative workers at blood-collection sitesTelephone support personnelSoftware programmers using debugging softwareConsumer users of inkjet printersDevelop patterns to define a set of deliverablesExtend the design patterns to define your standard set of information typesPolicy writing guidelinesDevelop user scenarios to define content for specific projectsBest Practice—Communicating user profiles and scenarios to team membersSummary
8. Optimizing Your Organization’s Efficiency and Effectiveness
Best Practices in Optimizing Efficiency and EffectivenessBest Practice—Defining your goals for efficient and effective performanceBest Practice—Analyzing your processes with respect to your goalsBest Practice—Investigating industry best practices (IPMM)Best Practice—Developing methods for measuring efficiency and effectivenessBest Practice—Improving processes and measuring resultsBest Practice—Techniques for measuring effectivenessSummary
9. Supporting Process Improvements with Effective Tools
Best Practices in Implementing Effective Tools for Process ImprovementBest Practice—Developing a tools strategyDeveloping a business case to acquire new toolsBest Practice—Developing requirements for toolsBest Practice—Researching and selecting vendors and toolsEvaluating alternativesMaking a final selectionArranging for a proof of conceptBest Practice—Introducing and managing toolsEstablishing a pilot projectManaging tools for the long termBest Practice—Developing a tools strategy for a global organizationSummary
10. Developing Effective Teams
Best Practices in Developing Effective TeamsBest Practice—Developing collaborative teamsDeveloping a team environmentBest Practice—Defining new roles and responsibilitiesBuilding on strengthsAdding new members to the teamCreating specializationsAccounting for domain expertiseBest Practice–Managing the managersTeam work makes managers more effectiveBarriers to team performanceBest Practice—Working with remote team membersHelping remote team members succeedManaging telecommuters and lone writersBest Practice—Working with global teamsBeginning with a mature processHaving an adequate budgetDeveloping an implementation planBest Practice–Outsourcing and offshoringSelect potential outsource vendors on the basis of the quality they can provideAvoiding the low-priced vendorSummary
11. Managing Your Team Resources
Managing Information DevelopersBest Practices in Managing People ResourcesBest Practice—Developing a hiring strategyChanging the personality mix of your teamHiring new graduates and entry-level employeesTesting for basic skillsInvolving team members in the hiring decisionsBest Practice—Investing in professional developmentFunding professional developmentEncouraging participationBest Practice—Developing individual strengthsMotivating through strengthsBest Practice—Managing by objectivesDeveloping objectivesDefining the competencies needed in your organizationDeveloping criteria for ranking competency levelsEncouraging peak performanceBest Practice—Delivering difficult messagesDealing with organization turmoilMotivating your staff during turmoilBest Practice—Measuring productivityMeasuring time on taskReclaiming Writing TimeSummary
12. Developing as an Effective Leader
Best Practices in Effective LeadershipBest Practice—Developing your leadership styleCoercive leadershipDemocratic leadershipAffiliative leadershipPacesetting leadershipCoaching leadershipAuthoritative leadershipBest Practice—Shackleton on leadershipLearning about management from an Antarctic explorerHiring the best peopleFiring those who don’t fitDemonstrating concern for each team member’s well-beingDeveloping staff member skillsFocusing on teamworkPreventing cliquesEliminating negativismCommitting to the leaderPromoting optimismMoving leadership to a new ageTen leadership steps for information-development managersSummary
13. Promoting Innovation in Information Development
Best Practices in Promoting Innovation in Information DevelopmentBest Practice—Overcoming obstacles to changeBreaking through the cognitive hurdleSidestepping the resource hurdleJumping the motivational hurdleKnocking over the political hurdleBest Practice—Understanding disruptive innovationsPrinciple #1: Companies depend on customers and investors for resourcesPrinciple #2: Small markets don’t solve the growth needs of large companiesPrinciple #3: Markets that don’t exist can’t be analyzedPrinciple #4: Technology supply may not equal market demandTypical Innovator’s Dilemma scenarioFour principles for successBest Practice—Focusing on customer-centered innovationsBest Practice–Instituting operational innovationsInventing operational innovations in publicationsExamining the seven key dimensions of workBest Practice—Benchmarking with competitors and best-in-class colleaguesSetting goals and recruiting partnersCollecting information from the partnersAnalyzing the information and preparing a benchmark reportActing on the benchmark resultsCreating an Innovation CouncilSummary
3. Project Management
14. An Introduction to Project Management
The Purpose of Information-Development Project ManagementThe Information–Development Life CycleInformation PlanningInformation DesignInformation DevelopmentProductionEvaluationYour Role as an Information-Development Project ManagerEstablishing your relationship with your team membersEstablishing your relationship with other project managersCharacteristics of a successful project managerSummary
15. Starting Your Project
Why you shouldn’t confuse writing the plan with real planningWhy bother to plan?Why you can’t shortchange planningBest Practices in Project PlanningBest Practice—Understanding the project starting pointEarly feasibility stageEarly planning stageLate planning stageImpossible planning stageBest Practice—Characterizing the project environmentProcess maturity levelsCommon project characteristicsCritical project differencesThe problem with managing traditionallyThe deadline dilemmaBest Practice—Identifying project goalsBest Practice—Analyzing project scopeBest Practice—Identifying project stakeholdersInternal stakeholdersExternal stakeholdersBest Practice—Developing a communication planBest Practice—Understanding the project scheduleBest Practice—Identifying the project risksSummary
16. Planning Your Information Development Project
Best Practices in Developing Your Project PlanBest Practice—Envisioning the information-development projectDescribe the larger projectState the larger project’s visionState the larger project’s goalsDefine the larger project’s scopeDescribe the customers for the product and your informationEvaluate the usability requirementsDevelop your vision for the information-development projectBest Practice—Defining the project detailsProject milestonesProject deadlinesProject scheduleSchedule dependenciesProject budgetBudget dependenciesProposed information deliverablesScope estimatesLevel of effortBest Practice—Defining the roles and responsibilities of the teamTeam membersInformation resourcesBest Practice—Calculating project risks and dependenciesProject assumptionsRisk analysisApplying the Dependency CalculatorContingency planningBest Practice—Estimating the project resource requirementsEstimating staff requirementsCalculating project costsDeciding if you can make the deadlinePreparing to adjust your estimatesSummary
17. Implementing a Topic Architecture
Best Practices in Implementing a Topic ArchitectureBest Practice—Developing content plans for each project deliverableBegin with user scenarios and use casesDevelop an annotated task listAdd conceptual and reference topicsAdd annotations to your topic listBest Practice—Mapping hierarchies and creating related-topic linksDevelop a relationship tableBest Practice—Developing indexes and assigning metadataPlan and develop an indexPlan and add metadataSummary
18. Keeping Your Project on Track
The Role of the Project Manager during the Design and Development Phases of the ProjectBest Practices in Project Tracking and ReportingBest Practice—Developing a resource-tracking spreadsheetDeveloping a complete plan with resources assigned to the entire scheduleDeveloping an iterative planDeveloping a holistic planBest Practice—Moving from tracking deliverables to tracking topicsBreaking deliverables down by topicsDeveloping topic-based estimates using top-down metricsEvaluating topic complexity and riskUsing multiple estimating techniquesEstimating a new project based on revisions of existing contentAdding external estimates for editing, graphics, production, and other activities done outside your organizationEstimating a new project that includes using topics in more than one deliverableBest Practice—Ensuring adequate resources are assigned to your projectAssigning overtime to the teamAdding additional resourcesAdjusting the scheduleChanging the scopeLeveling your resourcesBest Practice—Developing topic milestonesAssigning topics to milestones related to the product development feature scheduleDeveloping tracking milestones (focusing on small increments of work)Defining measurable milestonesAssessing progressMeeting with team membersDeveloping a tracking systemUsing automated workflow systems to track progressBest Practice—Reporting progressScheduling your reportsDeveloping a project-reporting templateBest Practice—Building your Project Management folderSummary
19. Managing as the Project Changes
Best Practices in Managing ChangeBest Practice—Managing the teamResolving problemsHandling difficult team membersDeveloping a self-managed teamPromoting quality goalsBest Practice—Tracking changeAnticipating changeEvaluating the impact of change on the projectBest Practice—Responding to changeRe-estimating the projectPreserving the project visionExtending the project scheduleAdjusting the interim milestone datesAdding resources to the projectAdjusting the project scopeNegotiating project qualityRevising the project spreadsheetsMaking new assignmentsBest Practice—Initiating changeIdentifying new customer information requirementsRecognizing the quality debt trapChoosing to improve the information designBest Practice—Analyzing ongoing project riskProductivity challengesTechnology challengesStaff changesStakeholder requirements in conflictBest Practice—Communicating about project changeCommunicating with team membersCommunicating with stakeholdersCommunicating with senior managementAdding to your Project Management folderSummary
20. Managing in a Collaborative Environment
Best Practices in Managing CollaborationMaking a business case for collaborationAdvantagesDisadvantagesBest Practice—Creating a collaborative environmentDeveloping a collaborative teamFostering collaboration among your team membersCollaborating across geographical locationsCollaborating across corporate culturesCollaborating across time zonesCollaborating with team members working from homeCollaborating across culturesManaging your cross-cultural projectCollaborating with both regular and temporary employeesBest Practice–Recognizing that collaborations may failSummary
21. Managing Quality Assurance
Best Practices in Assuring QualityBest Practice—Assuring quality throughout the information-development life cycleReviewing the project plans and design documentsBest Practice—Facilitating expert reviewsConducting individual reviewsConducting review meetingsUsing electronic review systemsOvercoming problems with expert reviewsBest Practice—Conducting structure reviewsScheduling structure reviewsBest Practice—Establishing developmental editingBest Practice—Validating content accuracyScheduling validationBest Practice—Obtaining customer feedbackUsing electronic feedback systemsConducting customer surveysWorking with customer serviceAdding usability assessmentsConducting user site visitsBest Practice—Scheduling copyeditingControlled writing toolsSummary
22. Managing Localization and Translation
Best Practices in Localization and TranslationBest Practice—Including localization and translation requirements in the project planIncluding localization in your project planScheduling time for localization and translationBudgeting for localization and translationBest Practice—Supporting localization and translation with content management and workflowDeveloping a single-source strategy to reduce translation costsCreating a multiple language repositoryEstablishing a translation memoryUsing content management to support pre-translationIntegrating automated workflows with your localization service providerAutomating publishingBest Practice—Preparing your content for localization and translationDeveloping global standards for your contentLocalizing the content ahead of timeUsing controlled language toolsPreparing graphics for translationLocalizing the product interfaceBest Practice—Selecting and working with a localization service providerSelecting a professional localization service providerEstablishing a working relationship early in the life cycleDeveloping a multiple-language glossary of termsRecruiting internal reviewers and establishing an internal review processProviding product training for translatorsManaging translation memoryEvaluating the localization projectSummary
23. Managing Production and Delivery
Best Practices for Managing ProductionBest Practice—Planning for production and deliveryKnowing what you’re supposed to produceScheduling backwardDefining roles and responsibilitiesScheduling indexingIncluding a legal reviewBest Practice—Preprocessing final deliverablesDeveloping an automated processRunning test contentEnsuring that all files are available and correctUsing content management to facilitate productionBest Practice—Performing production editsEstablishing a production-edit teamPreparing a production checklistBest Practice—Handing off final deliverablesPlanning for handoffsAnticipating potential problemsHandling final production and delivery inhouseVerifying the deliverablesBest Practice—Working with vendorsSelecting outside vendorsMaintaining good working relationshipsEvaluating the delivery processAdding to your project management fileSummary
24. Evaluating the Project
Best Practices in Project EvaluationBest Practice—Reviewing project dataComparing estimates to actualsEvaluating project dependenciesPreparing a project final reportAdd to your Project Management folderBest Practice—Conducting a “lessons learned” reviewSetting the agendaLogistics for your review meetingInviting stakeholders to a reviewTaking actionBest Practice—Evaluating the teamEvaluating team effectiveness and efficiencyWriting project performance reportsBest Practice—Collecting customer feedbackSurveying customersTracking support callsReceiving customer feedback reportsConsulting other stakeholdersSummary
Bibliography

Overview

A revolutionary new resource that brings documentation product management ideas up to date

The 1994 bestselling classic Managing Your Documentation Projects set the industry standard for technical documentation. However, since then, much has changed in the world of information development. With this new title, JoAnn Hackos looks beyond the structured project of the 1980s and 1990s. Instead, she focuses on the rapidly changing projects of the 21st century and addresses how to introduce agile information development without neglecting the central focus of planning information design and development around the needs of information users.

As an information-development manager, you are expected to reduce costs and project time, do more work with fewer resources and less money, and increase the value of the information you deliver. Recognizing this, Hackos has carefully designed this book to help you do precisely that. She helps you make strategic decisions about information development and directs the discussion of project management toward smarter decision-making.

An update of the original 1994 Information Process Maturity Model (IPMM) presents you with a method by which you can compare the state of your organization to others, evaluate your current status, and then consider what is necessary in order to move to the next level.

Information Development offers a completely new look at best practices for all phases of the document development lifecycle, including:

Managing a corporate information portfolio
Evaluating process maturity
Partnering with customers and developing user scenarios
Developing team effectiveness and collaboration
Planning and monitoring information projects
Managing translation and production
Evaluating project performance
Managing for quality, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness

The companion Web site includes electronic versions of the templates and checklists featured in the book.

Wiley Technology Publishing Timely. Practical. Reliable.

Visit our Web site at www.wiley.com/compbooks/

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