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Subject:RE: Start at the very beginning... From:"Giordano, Connie" <connie -dot- giordano -at- twcable -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Wed, 13 Apr 2005 10:39:04 -0400
Arroxane,
At the risk of incurring the wrath of Microsoft haters everywhere, I'd
suggest you look at the Sharepoint/Infopath solution, and least in the
short- and mid-term. I'm in the middle of a pilot for automating
delivery processes for technical support and infrastructure services.
We have instructional, reference, project, and marketing documentation
that surrounds many elements of the process, this solution thus far is
proving to be agile enough to handle what we're attempting to do on a
small scale, using a basic workflow engine, forms, a database, and a
document repository. As we scale up (and out) this may change, but
flexibility of the system is key, and so far so good.
Whatever technical solution you ultimately choose, now is the time to do
some strategic planning...and prioritizing.
What should your overall knowledge acquisition process be? How many
other "sub-processeses" for acquisition can you identify? (example,
content coming from outsource vendors).
What is the process for creating new stuff? This requires identifying
what kind of stuff should be created, who should create, who should
request, who should approve, how will it be updated?
After you acquire it, how to you categorize it? This will help identify
issues and possibilities for a taxonomy.
Once it's been categorized, how can people find it? Who will want to
find what (customers, prospective customers, vendors, staff, regulators,
etc)? What methods are available, or should be available for
distributing it?
Start with a high-level outline, and plug in the pieces you identified
to help determine your priorities for where to start. It's hard to pick
a technical solution until you know what kind of problems you need to
solve....
"It's kind of fun to do the impossible." - Walt Disney
-----Original Message-----
From: bounce-techwr-l-175203 -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:bounce-techwr-l-175203 -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of
arroxaneullman -at- aol -dot- com
Sent: Monday, April 11, 2005 2:12 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Start at the very beginning...
Hello all,
I've need to set things up (and straight) at a small specialty
software company. I'd like advice from those who may have been the
trailblazers in small or mid-size organizations.
To give you an idea of what I'm up against,
- Manuals and user documents were outsourced
- Marketing materials and white papers originated internally and then
were outsourced (to a different company than the manuals)
- They lack any library, document management system, knowledge base,
etc.
- They lack a standards or style guide
- They have a stronger relationship with partners than customers
(e.g., usability isn't their priority)
- They desire a central system linking all information, references,
documentation, support experiences, internal and external materials,
etc.
All this and the usual writing and editing any company needs. I'm not
in over my head, but I could use a few tips on where to start to get
this all organized. Perhaps knowledge management software?
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