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Your ideal content development and management partner can both develop all types of content and design and implement the optimum infrastructure to support it, managing the entire process for you. Contiem is that partner. We manage the quality of the work we produce by consistently following our proven processes and provide comprehensive reporting to keep our Clients informed every step of the way. You can depend on Contiem to provide comprehensive project management — our goal is to make it simple for you. In this paper, we provide ten tips for doing so.
Understand the business goals of the project, including the market context of the content, and the role of the documentation in the success of the business enterprise. Detail costs, deliverables, and deadlines within the business context.
Make sure everyone understands the scope of the project, including its limitations. Monitor the project constantly for scope creep. Ask your team to keep you informed if the Client’s request is beyond the documented scope. Be prepared to defend requests for more resources and schedule changes to adjust to scope changes.
Understand the different content audiences and their needs. Define their background understanding, their reading level, their familiarity with domain vocabulary, and the context in which they will use the documentation products.
Will it be used as an occasional reference source, for daily task execution, for installation instructions, or for troubleshooting? Is it a combination training and reference document? How exactly will the audience access and use the content?
Limit dependencies on sources outside your control to keep projects on track.
Communicate clearly and get confirmation from all participants that they understand and accept their roles.
Provide regular project updates and visibility into progress. If issues arise, keep management informed about them and how they are being addressed.
Define and communicate the role of reviewers. For example, will they validate technical content, approve format, or proofread? Make sure reviewers know their place in the schedule and can commit. For efficiency, schedule face‐to‐face reviews (conference calls are fine).
Keep the phrase “the best-laid plans…” in mind. Identify specific risks and develop contingency plans for each.
Identify what you did well that you want to continue, what to avoid, and where to improve.
Contiem has been the trusted content partner of choice for companies and organizations such as American Express, the U.S. Federal Government, The Home Depot, Cisco Systems, UnitedHealthcare, eBay, Facebook, and many more.
When you engage Contiem, we take the time to listen and develop an in-depth understanding of your immediate needs and longer-term challenges. Then, leveraging the capabilities that make us unique, we will provide a best-in-class, client-focused solution designed to achieve your business goals.
Experienced in a host of authoring software and with a wide variety of industries, we specialize in delivering a blend of services for documenting products and processes, training development, translation and localization, and content management.
Whether you need a complete training program to augment a new product or service, or you require job aids for internal learning, Contiem has the experience and skills to deliver the results you are looking for.