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Subject:Writing est. definitions needed From:"William J. Hartzer" <William -dot- Hartzer -at- EMC2-TAO -dot- FISC -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 22 Feb 1995 11:06:00 EST
Hi!
In putting together a project estimation worksheet (used for estimating how
long it will take to do writing projects), we have come up with some
differences in how the technical writers in our department define certain
terms. Could you "fill out" the following questions and let me know YOUR
definitions of the following technical writing "terms?"
If you forward all of your answers to me at: William -dot- Hartzer -at- emc2-tao -dot- fisc -dot- com
I will be happy to summarize and re-post it to the list. Thanks!
1) What's your definition of "new pages"
(i.e., if the Subject Matter Expert provides you with the technical
information in a text-based format, are you still writing "new pages" of
documentation?)
1a) How many hours per page should "new pages" take?
2) What's your definition of "heavy revisions"
(ie., If a SME provides you with this technical information on paper, is
this considered to be "heavy revisions" since the SME "already" wrote it out
for you? In other words, this is NOT to be considered "new pages" because
it's been 'written down' already, right?)
2a) How many hours per page should "heavy revisions" take?
3) What's your definition of "Light revisions"
3a) How many hours per page should "light revisions" take?
4) What's your definition of "Reorganizing" (existing documents)
4a) How many hours per page should "reorganizing (existing doc)" take?
5) What's your definition of "Re-formatting"
5a) How many hours per page should "reformatting" take?
We use this information to determine how many total estimated hours it will
take to do an entire project by using a formula to determine it. We then take
the total estimated hours and plug that number into another chart, which
calculates our timeline--and when each "task" of the project will be done (by
date).
