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Subject:Re: MS Word 2003 - Working without a template From:Writers Book Mall <steve -at- writersbookmall -dot- com> To:SB <sylvia -dot- braunstein -at- gmail -dot- com>, TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Sun, 13 Jan 2008 08:34:19 -0800 (PST)
Sylvia,
There's no easy fix. How do you balance today's needs
(getting the docs out) with the need to manage for the
growth in tomorrow's needs (templates, etc.)?
Clearly, you don't have the option of saying "time
out" for a release while you perfect your
methodologies. But look at R&D - neither do they. They
face the same pressures you do, just with different
tools.
What you have to do in order to keep your sanity is
get those docs out the door - but still reserve a
small percentage of your team's time for making your
work more productive. Just like your product has
releases - and even as one release goes out, everyone
already knows what needs to go into the next one - so
too should you have your own methodology releases.
Keep making small improvements to your templates and
workflow at the same time that you focus on getting
the docs out the door. Over a year or so, you'll be in
much better shape methodologically, and you'll also
have gotten the work done.
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