Managing Your Documentation Projects

by JoAnn T. Hackos

Practical, authoritative, and the first comprehensive guide tomanaging every phase of your publication project. The only bookdevoted exclusively to technical publication project management,Managing Your Documentation Projects arms you with provenstrategies and techniques for producing high-quality, extremelyusable documentation, while cutting cost and time-to-market. Dr.JoAnn T. Hackos, a top documentation design and project managementconsultant to major corporations, including IBM andHewlett-Packard, shares with you the fruit of her more than 15years of experience in the field. She gives
* Clear-cut, rational guidelines to managing every phase of theproject from planning and development, through production,distribution, and project evaluation
* Scores of usable templates, checklists, summaries, andforms
* Dozens of real-life case studies and scenarios taken from theauthor's extensive experience at top corporations
* Techniques applicable to virtually all fields ofdocumentation
Managing Your Documentation Projects was designed to function as acomprehensive guide for new managers and a daily tool of survivalfor veterans. It is also an invaluable resource for technicalwriters, editors, graphic designers, consultants, and anyone calledupon to produce high-quality technical documentation on time andwithin budget. JOANN T. HACKOS, PhD, is President of ComtechServices, Inc., an information/design firm in Denver, Colorado andSan Jose, California. She is also president of JoAnn Hackos &Associates, Inc., a strategic planning and management consultingfirm. In 1993, she served as president of the Society for TechnicalCommunication (STC) and is a frequent conference keynote speaker onsuch topics as quality and usability of products and services, theimportance of meeting the needs of the customer, and projectmanagement.

Genres: Writing, Reference

656 pages, Paperback

First published March 23, 1994

Reviews

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very thorough look at what it takes to plan, track, and manage a technical publications process. The principal thing that prevents me from giving it a 5 star rating is that Hackos presents a system of planning and tracking so thorough and meticulous that I cannot imagine actually implementing it in its complete form in the organization in which I work. Still, I've taken many ideas from the book and applied them to my own projects. I expect to come back to this book from time to time in the future to get fresh ideas about project planning and management.

[Matthew Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a required textbook for my graduate-level class on Document Production Management. Since then, hardly a day goes by where I don't apply something I learned from this book. Especially helpful is the focus on planning. Hackos plans a document project so extensively and specifically that the first draft almost writes itself.

I have since found that anytime I encounter the mythical beast of "writer's block," it is really a lack of planning in disguise, and it can easily be slayed by taking the time to plan what you write before you write it.

[Steve Goodyear · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great resource and reference. Despite being 20 years old, I found it still relevant for planning and managing technical communication and documentation projects. I found it's very thorough with guidance on all the necessary activities for a project manager and developmental editor to produce high quality publications. I especially liked the information plan template and audience analysis.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

The way the author micro-manages projects is a little out of control, but I thought she made a lot of good points about the importance of planning and reviewing your project to look for ways to improve.

[Andreus · Rating 5 out of 5]

HAS ANYBODY MADE THEIR OWN 5 PHASE MODEL BASED OUT OF THE TEACHINGS OF THIS BOOK? I WOULD LOVE TO COMPARE NOTES AND CHARTS THAT PERHAPS OTHERS HAVE CREATED BASED ON THE MODEL THAT THIS AUTHOR TEACHES. ANYBODY?