management of training and writing projects (long message)

[Gayle Hoffman <Gayle_Hoffman -at- SGSGROUP -dot- COM>]

Hello everyone!

First a short introduction.

My name is Gayle Hoffman and I am currently working as a technical
writer/trainer for a very large, world-wide company at an office in the
Netherlands. I am working in the Implementation and Support department for
internally and externally-developed applications.

I have an educational background in biology and instructional
design/training, and a lot of work experience as an instructor, especially
in teaching English.

I am in the process of changing and/or expanding my job description and
responsibilities.    At the moment, it seems that I will be responsible for
finding technical writers and trainers, internally or externally, training
them in documentation and training skills, editing and reviewing their
work, managing the projects, etc.

Now the questions.

I have no experience in managing other people working on projects or giving
training courses.  I am looking for advice or suggestions or information
for managing people and projects, but specifically writers and trainers
working on different applications.

In addition to this, the internally-developed applications are rapidly
mutliplying, but they are currently filled with bugs and other problems so
there are constantly new versions of the applications being sent out and
updated/changed.  Of course, these factors and that the applications are so
unstable makes it very difficult to write documentation and training
materials.  Any ideas or suggestions for overcoming this problem? Also for
helping new technical writers to deal with this?

Thank you for your time and consideration.  I look forward to hearing from
you.

Sincerely,
Gayle Hoffman
Spijkenisse, The Netherlands

email:
Gayle_Hoffman -at- sgsgroup -dot- com