TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Re: Justification for hiring and realistic deadline - pls help.
Subject:Re: Justification for hiring and realistic deadline - pls help. From:"Edgar D' Souza" <edgar -dot- b -dot- dsouza -at- gmail -dot- com> To:SB <sylvia -dot- braunstein -at- gmail -dot- com> Date:Sun, 6 May 2007 10:13:43 +0530
Just an idea, but how about a chart/graph which has time along the X
axis, in 3 increments: 1.5 years ago, 8 months ago, and the present.
For each of these points in time, you could show bars which measure:
a) Total company strength (or at the location where you're working, if
that shows a bigger growth curve)
b) No. of hours you work(ed) per day (or month) at that point in time
c) No. of pages of output (or other metric that you choose, or that is
recommended by the really experienced people on this list) per day (or
month)
d) A percentage which represents work you successfully completed over
work assigned to you (in terms of projects, manuals, or possibly the
same metric you chose for (b).
Such a chart ought to show them that while your output per hour has
risen, and so has the number of hours you work per day, the percentage
of successfully completed work has dropped (?drastically?) because
you're being loaded with way more work than one person ought to be
doing.
Perhaps management will understand your problem better when it is
represented as a chart, than if you were to sit with them and try to
explain why documentation is important to the company, and in what
ways the documentation's value to the user is being degraded by their
refusal to hire additional TWs. Also, the steep growth curve of the
company (simply expressed as number of employees), when contrasted
with the other figures, ought to make your point very eloquently.
Worth a try, perhaps...
Just my 2c.
Regards,
Ed.
On 5/6/07, SB <sylvia -dot- braunstein -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:
> The company for which I have been working for the past two years still
> thinks of itself in terms of Start-up despite the fact that they are growing
> tremendously (they may very well go for IPO this year). The company is doing
> well, very well. All the departments have been growing steadily but the
> Technical Writing Department (me!).
> I will be meeting with the top management visiting from the US in a week or
> so and I would like to find out what I should say to convince the Manager
> that at least one if not more technical writers are required. I can say "I
> am overwhelmed" and hand him a list of the things I am doing but what will
> it really mean to that manager? How do I convince him that this is really
> vital now and get him to act upon it?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Create HTML or Microsoft Word content and convert to Help file formats or
printed documentation. Features include support for Windows Vista & 2007
Microsoft Office, team authoring, plus more. http://www.DocToHelp.com/TechwrlList
Now shipping: Help & Manual 4 with RoboHelp(r) import! New editor,
full Unicode support. Create help files, web-based help and PDF in up
to 106 languages with Help & Manual: http://www.helpandmanual.com
---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-
