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A Real World Guide to Managing
Technical Documentation People,
Projects and Technology
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Managing Writers is a practical guide to managing documentation projects in the real world; a world where your managers have little interest in what you do, as long as you do it on time, a world where you have to fight for every bit of leverage you can get, a world where you need to understand and manage technology that is unique to documentation, and a world populated with a wildly diverse group of people.

The book is informal, but concise, using examples from the author's experience working with and managing technical writers. It provides practical strategies and specific techniques. It looks beyond big project, big team methodologies to the issues faced by smaller, less well-funded projects.

Managing Writers is for technical writers, both freelancers and employees, documentation managers, marketing managers and product development managers; anyone who may need to manage, full or part-time, a documentation project.

Managing Writers is a “book-in-progress” that is scheduled for publication by the end of 2008.

Outline

The outline for Managing Writers has three major sections: Leading People, Leading Projects, and Leading Technology:

People

How do you manage technical writers? You get concrete strategies and tactics for hiring, motivating, managing change, evaluating performance, outsourcing, and off-shoring.

Projects

How do you manage documentation projects in an environment where documentation is overlooked and not respected? Managing Writers outlines techniques to help you increase your team's influence, manage schedules effectively, balance multiple projects, and collaborate effectively with the rest of the product development team.

Technology

How do you manage the technology that supports documentation development and delivery? Managing Writers will help you decide what technology you need, what you don't need, how to acquire what you need, how to avoid common pitfalls, and how to stay ahead of the technology curve. It goes into depth concerning XML, content management, and modular documentation.

Book Extras

When Managing Writers is published, this section will contain electronic versions of templates and other extra material.

Mailing List

If you'd like to keep up-to-date on the progress of the book, join the Mailing List. Your email will only be used for occasional email updates for this book and for no other purpose.

You can also subscribe to the Managing Writers feed or follow progress on my blog.