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RE: Striving To Increase The Page Count Was: Estimation of the number of pages...
Subject:RE: Striving To Increase The Page Count Was: Estimation of the number of pages... From:"Sharon Burton" <sharon -at- anthrobytes -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Mon, 3 Jan 2005 17:59:00 -0800
If you can't estimate what you're doing and how long it will take, how will
you know what is possible in the time available and how will you know when
you're done?
If you can't estimate the effort involved, how will you know if this is a
project for 3 writers, not 1, and then get the help you need? Your gut? So
then you go to you boss and say "This seems like a lot of work. It seems
like we might need more people. I don't know how many people or how long it
should take us. I don't know what we are delivering and how much effort that
will take. Can I have the funds to bring in more people?"
After your boss stops laughing at you, you'll be sent back to your desk to
come up with these figures to make the business case for what you're doing
and why it needs more people. And that's when estimating is required.
Otherwise, you sound like a teenager whining that it just seems hard and
like too much work.
Not that you would ever do that, Tony, but people are in this position all
the time and don't understand why they don't get the resources they need and
why their projects are like train wrecks every single time.
Every mid to senior level writer should be able to closely estimate their
project. It is one of the criteria by which, in my company, you get classed
as a senior writer. That and ability to manage your projects. And you can't
manage it until you can estimate it.
No one ever said that productivity didn't involve quality. If it took you 3
weeks to write that 9 paragraphs, then you can use that metric for future
similar projects. The next time you see a project like this one, you know
that it's going to take you about 3 weeks to write about 3 pages of that
kind of information. If you worked for me, you would be required to log this
data so I can use it on future projects with you that involve that sort of
information. So I could estimate how long that project might take. Of
course, taking that long to write that little would mean your productivity
levels are too low to work for me, but there it is. My people typically
write like the wind. The last part of being a senior writer.
sharon
Sharon Burton
CEO, Anthrobytes Consulting
951-369-8590
www.anthrobytes.com
President of IESTC
-----Original Message-----
From: bounce-techwr-l-189020 -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:bounce-techwr-l-189020 -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com]On Behalf Of Tony
Markos
Sent: Monday, January 03, 2005 5:23 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: RE: Striving To Increase The Page Count Was: Estimation of the
number of pages...
The heck with using page counts and/or topics for
estimating. In one of my most productive TW
assignments, it took me almost three weeks to create
nine smaller size paragraphs - all under the same
topic. (Note: Productivity involves quantity AND
quality.)
In a project that today I am embarrassed of, I
probably averaged about 3 to 5 pages a day (over 4 to
5 months) - and (best guess) one topic per page.
Also the heck with books and classes on estimating.
I think you are confusing planning the document or
help with page numbers as productivity.
To figure out how long it's going to take to
generate the manual or help for a product, you MUST
estimate how many (and which)topics you are writing
about. You multiply that count by the number of
pages per topic, on average. Then you figure out how
long it takes to write a topic of that length,
and.....
>
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