Re: Now lone techwriter, startup

Subject: Re: Now lone techwriter, startup
From: Tkritr -at- aol -dot- com
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2002 17:17:06 EST

Hi Ellen ---

If you are already familiar with Microsoft Project, I'd say it's a decent
tool to use to get an overall picture of all of your documentation projects.
It can help you organize what needs to be done yesterday and what can wait.
I'm a visually inclined person, so I like the graphs that it provides. If,
however, it is just another tool that you are going to have to ramp up on,
I'd just create something in Word for your own use.

Make the document numbering system and file naming conventions that you
mentioned priority items. If there are other people producing other types of
documentation (marketing, functional specs), get their ideas, too. It is so
much easier to lock these down at the beginning then to try to go back and
figure it out later (or even worse change it, but that's a whole different
nightmare).

Once you establish these systems, document how each one works, provide a copy
to everyone producing documentation, and stick to the decisions. Don't be
too surprised if something comes up and you need to tweak the
system/conventions a little. Just remember if you do change anything, update
your documentation. These seem to be the updates that get put to the side
when other work is overwhelming (because it's just an in-house document), but
they will come back to bite you later.

For the rest of the work, I'd talk to key people in your organization to
figure out what projects need to be done ASAP, put them into your project
plan, and dig into the work. Sometimes that's easier said then done, but as
you finish each document, it might not seem as overwhelming.

HTH,
Kirsten Petersen
technical writing consultant

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