The document discusses best practices for managing documentation projects. It covers planning the project, scoping the work, estimating effort, scheduling tasks, baselining the plan, communicating with stakeholders, following up on progress, managing reviews, and reporting on the project status. The key recommendations are to engage early, participate in project initiation, use data from all sources to scope the work, plan tasks at a granular level for effort estimation, recognize communication challenges, and regularly report on progress compared to the baseline plan.

1. Managing Documentation Projects
Kumar Dhanagopal
tcworld India
March 12, 2011

2. The process
1. Plan
2. Execute, monitor, and control
3. Close
OR…
1. Execute
2. Lose control
3. Stop
4. Plan, execute, …
© Kumar Dhanagopal, 2011 tcworld India 2

3. Challenges
• Getting started
• Scoping
• Estimating effort
• Scheduling
• Baselining
• Communicating
• Following up!
• Managing reviews
• Reporting
© Kumar Dhanagopal, 2011 tcworld India 3

4. • If I can do it, anybody can
• Each one of us is a project manager
© Kumar Dhanagopal, 2011 tcworld India 4

5. Getting started
Scoping
Estimating effort
Getting started Scheduling
Baselining
Communicating
Following up!
Managing reviews
• Engage early Reporting
– Is it ever ok to engage late?
– Engaging early ≠ writing from day 1
• Participate in the project initiation phase
• Take charge
• Set aside time for doc planning
© Kumar Dhanagopal, 2011 tcworld India 5

6. Getting started
Scoping
Estimating effort
Scoping Scheduling
Baselining
Communicating
Following up!
Managing reviews
• Use data from all sources Reporting
• Consider lifecycle use cases
• Prioritize use cases
• Look for opportunities to reuse content
© Kumar Dhanagopal, 2011 tcworld India 6

7. Getting started
Scoping
Estimating effort
Estimating effort Scheduling
Baselining
Communicating
Following up!
Managing reviews
• Plan at as granular a level as possible Reporting
Use case / task Topic Type Potential Effort
for reuse (person
days)
UC0-Set up a Overview of clusters Concept Low 1.0
cluster Creating a cluster Procedure None 0.5
Configuring a cluster Procedure None 0.5
UC1-Manage Server lifecycle Concept Medium 1.5
the server Starting and stopping Procedure None 0.5
lifecycle server instances
© Kumar Dhanagopal, 2011 tcworld India 7

8. Getting started
Scoping
Estimating effort
Estimating effort (contd.) Scheduling
Baselining
Communicating
Following up!
Managing reviews
• Avoid calculators Reporting
– G-I-G-O
– Result not really objective
• Keep a buffer!
It takes more to write less than to write more!
© Kumar Dhanagopal, 2011 tcworld India 8

9. Getting started
Scoping
Estimating effort
Scheduling Scheduling
Baselining
Communicating
Following up!
Effort estimate: 50 person days Managing reviews
Reporting
Writers available: 2
Calendar days to complete the task: ?
• Look beyond the math!
– Task divisibility
– Task sequence
– People: skills, availability, interest
© Kumar Dhanagopal, 2011 tcworld India 9

10. Getting started
Scoping
Estimating effort
Baselining Scheduling
Baselining
Communicating
Following up!
Managing reviews
• How much analysis is enough? Reporting
120
Reliability of the plan (%)
95
100
80
60
40
20
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Data available (%)
© Kumar Dhanagopal, 2011 tcworld India 10

11. Getting started
Scoping
Estimating effort
Baselining (contd.) Scheduling
Baselining
Communicating
Following up!
Managing reviews
• Practice progressive elaboration Reporting
• Get the plan reviewed
• Keep a running list of “opens”
• Commit only what’s feasible
• Minimize the unknown unknowns
• Be prepared to re-plan!
© Kumar Dhanagopal, 2011 tcworld India 11

12. Getting started
Scoping
Estimating effort
Communicating Scheduling
Baselining
Communicating
Following up!
• Recognize communication channels Managing reviews
Reporting
2 people 1 channel, 3 3, 4 6
n x (n-1)/2
10 45!
• Communicate bad news early
• It’s ok to over-communicate
• Include all stakeholders
• Know your champion
• Listen!
© Kumar Dhanagopal, 2011 tcworld India 12

13. Getting started
Scoping
Estimating effort
Following up Scheduling
Baselining
Communicating
Following up!
Managing reviews
• Use all possible means Reporting
• Keep a running to-do list
• Push for an ETC date
• Set reminders, flag email
© Kumar Dhanagopal, 2011 tcworld India 13

14. Getting started
Scoping
Estimating effort
Following up (contd.) Scheduling
Baselining
Communicating
Following up!
Managing reviews
Reporting
© Kumar Dhanagopal, 2011 tcworld India 14

15. Getting started
Scoping
Estimating effort
Managing reviews Scheduling
Baselining
Communicating
Following up!
Managing reviews
• Plan Reporting
– Identify reviewers up front
– Define expectations, schedule, and process
• Execute
– Watch reviewers’ priorities
– Reiterate expectations
– Monitor progress
– Facilitate reviews: doc walkthrough,
incremental review, piecemeal review
© Kumar Dhanagopal, 2011 tcworld India 15

16. Getting started
Scoping
Estimating effort
Reporting Scheduling
Baselining
Communicating
Following up!
Managing reviews
• Report regularly Reporting
• Report w.r.t the plan
• Flag issues, early
• Focus on the future
© Kumar Dhanagopal, 2011 tcworld India 16

17. Getting started
Scoping
Estimating effort
Reporting (contd.) Scheduling
Baselining
Communicating
Following up!
Managing reviews
• Report on the future Reporting
Task Planned Work Work Revised
effort (days) done (%) remaining plan
T1 10 50 7 12
T3 10 50 8 13
Total 20 ? 15 25
Work remaining: 15 / 25 = 60%
Work done: 100 – 60 = only 40%
© Kumar Dhanagopal, 2011 tcworld India 17

18. Getting started
Scoping
Estimating effort
Reporting (contd.) Scheduling
Baselining
Communicating
Following up!
Managing reviews
• Track the “burn” rate Reporting
100
80
Work remaining
60
40
20
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Time
Plan Actual Forecast
© Kumar Dhanagopal, 2011 tcworld India 18

19. Think big picture
• Take the project seriously, not project
management
• There’s life beyond the project
© Kumar Dhanagopal, 2011 tcworld India 19

20. Thank you!
Questions?
kumards_99@yahoo.com
© Kumar Dhanagopal, 2011 tcworld India 20