English 5387: Publications Management - Progress Posting 3
Question: Taking the ten dependencies listed above in the supplemental content section and briefly assess each in terms of your single-sourcing project. You can quantify them using the dependencies calculator, if you like, or simply address each dependency with a short 1-2 sentence comment.
Project: Redesign Notice to Authors for ACS Combinatorial Science to provide 2 deliverables: one printable and one web-based.
Due Date: December 6, 2011
Time Remaining: 11 weeks
Product stability: Amount of change a product is likely to undergo during the course of a project.
Fortunately, this product is fairly stable for most journals. For ACS Combinatorial Science, this was last majorly revised for January 2011 with a minor revision mid-year for a change in the type of copyright transfer form. The stability of the product should be beneficial for this project.
Information availability: Accessibility of quality of information about the product(s).
This could be a moderate issue. I have access to the current version of the work and some word-of-mouth, manager-summarized feedback from the National Meeting. I also have experience with the employee’s view of the author uptake and retention of the information in the document. I do not have access to formal market research or user studies, and I will not be able to access this information because I signed an agreement stating that I would not use company resources for class work. I will have to look at the Notice type documents for other publisher and organizations to get guidance.
Prototype availability: Existence and quality of prototype under development.
This should be no issue at all. The most current version of the document is published and freely available on the company website.
SME availability: Availability of SMEs during the course of the project.
There will be no SME availability for this project for the same reasons described under information availability. I will have to use my own experience as a technical editor and some of the informal feedback we have received on this document.
Review experience: Quality and timeliness of reviews scheduled.
Since I will be reviewing the documentation myself, my skills as a technical editor should help with the quality. The timeliness may be an issue with yet another production push and my eyes drying out and blowing away at work. But I have control of this step with a project team of one and should be able exert control over this stage.
Technical experience: Degree of technical knowledge about the product(s).
I am very familiar with this type of document because I have been involved in the creation and updating of this type of document at least one time per year for 6 out of the 7 years that I have worked at my current job.
Writing and design experience: Degree of writing and design skill.
As a team of one, I will be relying on my skill and experience as a technical editor to work on the documentation. However, some of the language is lawyer mandated and cannot be changed not matter how awkward it seems. For Design, I have only my Document Design and Online Publishing classes to rely on for design, and my experience with some of our layouts at work. This should be a low to moderate problem.
Audience understanding: Extent to which user requirements are known and understood.
My understanding of the current document is that users find it to be too long and do not seem to retain the content. The legal content, such as copyright transfer, has to be there, but some of the examples could be moved to secondary pages that readers could visit if they desire more information.
Team experience: Expertise individuals have in working on collaborative teams.
With a team of one, team experience would seem to be a non-existent issue. However, I do have experience working on teams at my workplace, and I am comfortable with this dependency.
Tools experience: Expertise with specific tools and technologies used to produce the product(s).
Here, we run into my biggest concern. I have a very limited budget, so my current plan is to use a text editor to create my XML and MacRabbit CSSEdit to create my style sheet. I do not currently have a backup technology plan, and this could be a downfall. I chose both programs because I already own them and know how to use them.
Project: Redesign Notice to Authors for ACS Combinatorial Science to provide 2 deliverables: one printable and one web-based.
Due Date: December 6, 2011
Time Remaining: 11 weeks
Product stability: Amount of change a product is likely to undergo during the course of a project.
Fortunately, this product is fairly stable for most journals. For ACS Combinatorial Science, this was last majorly revised for January 2011 with a minor revision mid-year for a change in the type of copyright transfer form. The stability of the product should be beneficial for this project.
Information availability: Accessibility of quality of information about the product(s).
This could be a moderate issue. I have access to the current version of the work and some word-of-mouth, manager-summarized feedback from the National Meeting. I also have experience with the employee’s view of the author uptake and retention of the information in the document. I do not have access to formal market research or user studies, and I will not be able to access this information because I signed an agreement stating that I would not use company resources for class work. I will have to look at the Notice type documents for other publisher and organizations to get guidance.
Prototype availability: Existence and quality of prototype under development.
This should be no issue at all. The most current version of the document is published and freely available on the company website.
SME availability: Availability of SMEs during the course of the project.
There will be no SME availability for this project for the same reasons described under information availability. I will have to use my own experience as a technical editor and some of the informal feedback we have received on this document.
Review experience: Quality and timeliness of reviews scheduled.
Since I will be reviewing the documentation myself, my skills as a technical editor should help with the quality. The timeliness may be an issue with yet another production push and my eyes drying out and blowing away at work. But I have control of this step with a project team of one and should be able exert control over this stage.
Technical experience: Degree of technical knowledge about the product(s).
I am very familiar with this type of document because I have been involved in the creation and updating of this type of document at least one time per year for 6 out of the 7 years that I have worked at my current job.
Writing and design experience: Degree of writing and design skill.
As a team of one, I will be relying on my skill and experience as a technical editor to work on the documentation. However, some of the language is lawyer mandated and cannot be changed not matter how awkward it seems. For Design, I have only my Document Design and Online Publishing classes to rely on for design, and my experience with some of our layouts at work. This should be a low to moderate problem.
Audience understanding: Extent to which user requirements are known and understood.
My understanding of the current document is that users find it to be too long and do not seem to retain the content. The legal content, such as copyright transfer, has to be there, but some of the examples could be moved to secondary pages that readers could visit if they desire more information.
Team experience: Expertise individuals have in working on collaborative teams.
With a team of one, team experience would seem to be a non-existent issue. However, I do have experience working on teams at my workplace, and I am comfortable with this dependency.
Tools experience: Expertise with specific tools and technologies used to produce the product(s).
Here, we run into my biggest concern. I have a very limited budget, so my current plan is to use a text editor to create my XML and MacRabbit CSSEdit to create my style sheet. I do not currently have a backup technology plan, and this could be a downfall. I chose both programs because I already own them and know how to use them.
posted by Jessica Badger at
6:55 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home