• Communicator: You need to be able to communicate not only with your team members but also with senior management. Many times you will yourself in the role of go-between when your team conflicts with senior management, or when senior management is reluctant to allocate resources to your team.
• Coach: You need to be able to guide others to achieve the quality standards envisioned for the product. You are the leader who must be engaged enthusi- astically in project and able to engender similar enthusiasm and care in your team members. You also have to keep them steadily on track toward meeting the project goals.
I
Advocate: You need to let team members know that you not only managethem but also will go to bat for them at all levels of the organization for re- sources and reasonable requirements.
If you hope to be an effective project manager, you must work well with your team and with the necessary organizational hierarchy so that you can get things done as as possible. it's important to remember to keep a balance among the many factions demanding your attention. If the balance tips too far in favor of one or the other, conflict is likely to arise and stall the project.
Phases of the Project
To collaborate better on writing projects, you first need to consider the general cycle for document development. Sometimes known as a project "life cycle," the four phases of document development are these:
• Planning
• Writing, usability and editing • Producing
• Conducting a postmortem
In general, you can expect to spend approximately 30 percent of your total project time on planning; 50 percent on writing, testing, and editing; 20 percent on pro- ducing; and 1 percent on conducting the postmortem. These figures may change, of course, depending on the nature of the specific project. (See Chapter 1 for more on planning.)
Writing, Usability Testing, and Editing Phase
During this phase of project development, the team members are busy writing sec- tions of the document and the developmental editing process is in full swing. The manager's job is to track the document's progress, coordinate the team's ef- forts, and begin testing initial drafts on real audiences. Once again, team mem- bers will spend a lot of time in project review meetings, team meetings,
Chapter 6 / Collaborating on Writing Projects
fhe planning phase is one of the busiest for the entire team. Whether you are working with a large group or coauthoring a project with one other person, it's important to begin the writing process by setting a planning meeting, dividing responsibilities, and developing a writing schedule.
Brainstorm. Get the team members together for a brainstorming session. It's a good idea to hold the meeting in a room that has blackboards, whiteboards, or flip charts so you can write down the ideas in a form that everyone can see. The objectives for this meeting are:
• to agree on clear goals for the project
• to allow everyone to have a say in formulating these goals • to establish individual members' responsibilities • a writing schedule
2. Divide responsibilities. If the team is large, the group may decide to assign parts of the docu- ment to various team members. You can accomplish this task in several ways: you can assign one person to do the research, one to do the writing, one to do the editing, and so forth. Or you can break each phase of the document development process into segments and assign everyone a task in each phase. For example, one person might be responsible for researching and writing first
two sections, another for researching and writing the next two, and still another for researching
and writing the final sections. Editing the entire document would also be shared among the team members. No matter which method you choose, be sure to hold a team meeting when each phase is completed to share everyone's individual work with the whole group.
3. Develop a schedule. Be realistic about the length of time necessary to complete individual tasks and impress on everyone the need to meet the project milestones that the group sets. Usually, the milestones include research, writing, editing, and keep in mind that editing oc- curs all along in the process, not just at the end. Keep in mind also that production always takes longer than you think it will. Build in sufficient "slip time" in the schedule.
negotiation meetings, and so on. They will also need to develop an effective vertical as well as horizontal communication system. That is, individual contributors need to report to the project manager and establish clear channels of communication among the team members themselves. Specific techniques for developing these channels are given later in this chapter (pp. 147-150).
Peer Editing One of the most common collaborative one of the
most peer editing, a process you may have first encountered in the classroom. When you are asked to look at another class member's work and suggest ways to improve it, you have an opportunity to provide valuable input, and you are also learning a technique that will be valuable to you in the workplace (see
Phases of the Project 141 Figure 6.1
Example of Peer Editing of a Document
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degradation from and radiation. This makes
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good indicator species of healthy ecosystems. Worldwide,
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Guidelines: Peer Editing). An added benefit of editing other people's writing is that it sharpens your ability to critique your own work. In the work environment, peer editing is designed to involve the whole team in a project, making sure that everyone in the group has a stake in the final product. Figure 6.1 shows an example of classroom peer editing.
In many ways, classroom collaboration is the same as collaborating in business and industry; even though you do not have the same corporate structures and job titles, many of the same problems arise. You can use the specialized classroom tech- niques discussed in this section and adapt the other techniques in this chapter to your company project as necessary. Not all of them will apply, but many will allow you to improve your teamwork and your written product.
See Chapter 5 for more on editing and Chapter 9 for more on testing.
> Tip: Remember to allow
enough for the transla-
tion process. These transla- tions will need to be edited and go through several
review and
above the initial document's ensure accuracy and effective local- ization of content for the target countries (see Chapter 1, pp. 26-28).
Production Phase
The manager's job becomes easier at this stage. Once the document is ready for production, the primary concern is to locate the vendors and produce a detailed production sheet with all the typesetting and design specifications clearly marked. If your company uses in-house pro- duction people, this task is easy. The vendors are on site and are experienced with company projects and standards. If you need to contact external production companies, your job is more difficult because you must find vendors who have experience with such projects and who also can meet your project deadlines and
Chapter 6 / Collaborating on Writing Projects
GUIDELINES Peer Editing
• Put yourself in the intended audience's fo the extent possible, read the document as if you were the person for whom it's intended.
• Read the whole document through once before making comments on it. Getting a sense of the whole before commenting on the parts is essential for effective editing. Once you know what the entire document is about, it's easier for you to see how the parts succeed or fail in enhancing the whole.
• Ask the writer for a list of particular concerns about the document. Often the writer has questions about specific elements of the text, and it's helpful when editing to focus on those areas. A fresh pair of eyes may find the solution to a problem that the author can't see because of being too close to the material. Asking for a list of concerns also makes the editing process more of a productive dialogue than a critical monologue.
• Express your comments in the form of questions. Instead of saying definitively "Change this paragraph," ask the writer how the text will affect readers: "Will readers be confused here?" By using these "reader response" questions, your comments are easier for the writer to f hey will be interpreted as suggestions rather than wholesale revisions of the prose. Remember that writers almost always have a lot of ego in their work, and that those egos bruise easily. Asking questions allows you to make your points gently but firmly (see again Figure
J
budgetary requirements. For documents that will be translated for international markets, you also need to supervise the translation process, making sure content is accurately represented and localized for the target countries.
See Chapter 4 for more on designing.
Postmortem Phase
Document completion is not the end of the writing team's job. Conducting a post- mortem on the project is the best way to learn from mistakes and successes. Once the document is out the door, effective managers call together their project teams and evaluate the experience. Depending on how detailed you want this step to be, you can conduct evaluations at several levels: the document itself (which requires you to get follow-up feedback from the intended audiences who are now using the document), the document development process, the team, the individual team members, and the manager. By doing these evaluations immediately after the pro- ject is finished, you have the best chance of planning for a more effective process
time.
Always be sure to get audience feedback about the final document. You can do so by implementing audience surveys, visiting customer sites, telephoning or meet- ing with customers to discuss the document, or conducting usability tests. (Sec Chapter 9 for more on usability testing.)
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Tracking ths Project