Practical, authoritative, and the first comprehensive guide tomanaging every phase of your publication project. The only bookdevoted exclusively to technical publication project management,Managing Your Documentation Projects arms you with provenstrategies and techniques for producing high-quality, extremelyusable documentation, while cutting cost and time-to-market. Dr.JoAnn T. Hackos, a top documentation design and project managementconsultant to major corporations, including IBM andHewlett-Packard, shares with you the fruit of her more than 15years of experience in the field. She gives you: * Clear-cut, rational guidelines to managing every phase of theproject from planning and development, through production,distribution, and project evaluation * Scores of usable templates, checklists, summaries, andforms * Dozens of real-life case studies and scenarios taken from theauthor's extensive experience at top corporations * Techniques applicable to virtually all fields ofdocumentation Managing Your Documentation Projects was designed to function as acomprehensive guide for new managers and a daily tool of survivalfor veterans. It is also an invaluable resource for technicalwriters, editors, graphic designers, consultants, and anyone calledupon to produce high-quality technical documentation on time andwithin budget. JOANN T. HACKOS, PhD, is President of ComtechServices, Inc., an information/design firm in Denver, Colorado andSan Jose, California. She is also president of JoAnn Hackos &Associates, Inc., a strategic planning and management consultingfirm. In 1993, she served as president of the Society for TechnicalCommunication (STC) and is a frequent conference keynote speaker onsuch topics as quality and usability of products and services, theimportance of meeting the needs of the customer, and projectmanagement.

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/

Project Management The one-stop resource for project management documentation and templates for all projects The success of any project is crucially dependent on the documents produced for it. The Practical Guide to Project Management Documentation provides a complete and reliable source of explanations and examples for every possible project-related document-from the proposal, business case, and project plan, to the status report and final post-project review. The Practical Guide to Project Management Documentation is packed with material that slashes the time and effort expended on producing new documents from scratch. Following the processes in the Project Management Institute's PMBOK® Guide, this one-stop, full-service book also offers tips and techniques for working with documents in each project process. Documentation for several project/client scenarios is addressed, including internal and externally contracted projects. A single project-the construction of a water theme park-is used as the case study for all the document examples. An included CD-ROM provides all the documents from the book as Microsoft Word(r) files. Readers can use these as a framework to develop their own project documents. The Practical Guide to Project Management Documentation is an unmatched reference for the numerous documents essential to project managers in all industries. (PMBOK is a registered mark of the Project Management Institute, Inc.)

We live in an age of electronic interconnectivity, with co-workers across the hall and across the ocean, and managing meetings can be a challenge across multiple time zones and cultures. This makes documenting your projects more important than ever. In Technical Documentation and Process, Jerry Whitaker and Bob Mancini provide the background and structure to help you document your projects more effectively. With more than 60 years of combined experience in successfully documenting complex engineering projects, the authors guide you in developing appropriate process and documentation tools that address the particular needs of your organization. Features Strategies for documenting a project, product, or facility A sample style guide template—the foundation on which you can build documents of various types A selection of document templates Ideas for managing complex processes and improving competitiveness using systems engineering and concurrent engineering practices Basic writing standards and helpful references Major considerations for disaster planning Discussion of standardization to show how it can help reduce costs Helpful tips to manage remote meetings and other communications First-hand examples from the authors’ own experience Throughout, the authors offer practical guidelines, suggestions, and lessons that can be applied across a wide variety of project types and organizational structures. Comprehensive yet to the point, this book helps you define the process, document the plan, and manage your projects more confidently.

Software documentation forms the basis for all communication relating to a software project. To be truly effective and usable, it should be based on what needs to be known. Agile Documentation provides sound advice on how to produce lean and lightweight software documentation. It will be welcomed by all project team members who want to cut out the fat from this time consuming task. Guidance given in pattern form, easily digested and cross-referenced, provides solutions to common problems. Straightforward advice will help you to judge: What details should be left in and what left out When communication face-to-face would be better than paper or online How to adapt the documentation process to the requirements of individual projects and build in change How to organise documents and make them easily accessible When to use diagrams rather than text How to choose the right tools and techniques How documentation impacts the customer Better than offering pat answers or prescriptions, this book will help you to understand the elements and processes that can be found repeatedly in good project documentation and which can be shaped and designed to address your individual circumstance. The author uses real-world examples and utilises agile principles to provide an accessible, practical pattern-based guide which shows how to produce necessary and high quality documentation.

"Plan, structure, write, review, publish"--Cover.

It's tricky enough to spearhead a big project when you're the boss. But when you're the leader of a team of people who don't report to you, the obstacles are even greater. Results Without Authority is the definitive book for project managers looking to establish credibility and control. A groundbreaker in the field, it supplies a start-to-finish system for getting successful project results from cross-functional, outsourced, and other types of teams. The completely updated second edition includes new information on: ò Agile methods and evolving project management tools ò Strategies for working with virtual teams ò Analytical versus ôblinkö decision processes ò The use (and misuse) of social media in project environments ò The myth of multitasking. For project leaders lacking clear-cut authority, getting everyone on boardùand keeping them thereùcan be a challenge. Results Without Authority is the must-have guide for getting the best results from your team.