Reorganization Questions

[Rick Lippincott <rjl -at- BOSTECH -dot- COM>]

Well, we all know the old motto of business: "When in doubt,
reorganize." It's struck my company this weekend.

Up until Friday, my entire tech writing career has been with
companies where all of the tech writers were in one department
answering to one manager. On Friday, that changed when my present
employer announced a major reorganization of the R&D department.
There are now five software development teams, each team has a number
of tech writers. Although each group of tech writers will answer to a
group manager, there is apparently no plan to have one overall
manager in  charge of tech pubs. There's been talk of a "steering
committee" composed of reps from each team so that we can maintain
some consistancy across the teams...but I'm getting ahead of myself.

This is a done deal, there's no chance to change minds or present
alternatives. Okay, in the meantime, the pay's the same and the
deadlines haven't changed.

I know we've debated the advantages and disadvantages of this type of
structure here on techwr-l. What I'm interested in now is hearing
from people who work (or have worked) under this type of structure.
My one question:

What are the pitfalls that I should whatch out for? What are the
lessons learned that you can send to me? Any suggestions on how to
make this work with a minimum of trouble?

Thanks...

Rick Lippincott
Boston Technology
Wakefield, MA
rjl -at- bostech -dot- com

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