Document Creation/Change

[James Barrow]

>Gene Kim-Eng said:
>>Mary Arrotti wrote:
>>
>>There is nothing inherently advanced about moving to a system where one
group >>(PMO) controls when, how, and why another group (doc) meets with a
third group >>(dev). This is what Jim described and what I primarily
responded to.

You're right, it isn't that unusual.  You guys picked up on the fact that
there is a lot more going on in the organization than just the creation of a
process.  The PMO wants to be Louis XIV (the Sun King) as they have also
seized control of salaries and promotions.

>>What's different & unusual is for PMO (if a separate group) to control the
doc >>process - how the documentation group works and interacts with other
groups. >>Since this is a proposed process change, I do think it may be
useful for Jim to find >>out how his management wants to handle this & how
it would impact his/his >>group's effectiveness.

The PMO is a completely separate group from my Technical Communications.
And when I say 'PMO' I'm talking about the person in charge of all of the
project managers.  In essence, the PMO wanted to make sure that they were
aware of all the documents that were being created so that they could
back-fill their project plans (which don't exist at this point).  They were
trying to manage projects vicariously through the tech writers.

>What Jim described could be an office power struggle.  Or it could be that
the PMO >is the only one willing to step up to the plate and take ownership
of an out-of-control >process.  If this scheme is being imposed across the
board on the product >development process, i.e., engineering has to get the
same approvals to make >changes in design, it's possible that the main
target of it may be the engineers who >are requesting the doc changes and
not tech pubs at all.

It's a little bit of both.  The entire project is out of control  Take, for
example, the head of Engineering who hired 30 new bodies...without telling
anyone.  Once these new bodies were granted network access they uploaded
"stuff" (it's not fair to call these documents) at an alarming rate and
reporting that these docs met a certain requirement.  For example, instead
of working with the tech writers to develop coding standards, they would
simply upload 400-page PDFs from Apple, Sun, Microsoft, etc.

I think I resolved the situations by putting the proposed solution into
effect.  From 8am to 2pm I emailed my project manager every time I called a
resource, attended a meeting, forwarded documentation requests, etc.  He
called me screaming, "What the heck are you sending me all of this for?!"

"It's the new document creation process"

"Not any more it's not"

So the project managers staged a coup and convinced the PMO that my solution
was better.  Ha ha...ha ha.

- Jim