Re: Compare and Contrast Doc Group Performance -- What's a World-Class Doc Group Look Like?

["Edwin Skau" <eddy -dot- skau -at- gmail -dot- com>]

>> He rattled off some QA-type statistics (code coverage, testing
automation, trends in bugs found/fixed) as good examples of how a QA team in
Company X might be compared to a QA team in Company Y.

We're really talking metrics, although we could call them sheep's eggs or
something else.  The idea usually, is to establish a sheep's egg  standard,
and then set goals that sound like a 20% improvement per quarter, or a sick
stigma target or something equally delightful. The problem is that many
qualitative factors can be twisted beyond recognition once they're
quantified and converted into empirical targets.

Some direct parallels to the QA-type statistics would probably be topic
(feature/task) coverage, task automation, (and since we've covered bugs)
process/product enhancement initiatives (prototyping, information
re-architecting, usability testing,), percentage of content reuse potential
realized, etc.

I would assume that most of this would be covered as part of your balanced
scorecard exercise.

You could also look at what sheep's eggs marketing is using.

Regards,
Edwin

Edwin




On Tue, Mar 11, 2008 at 12:12 AM, John Rosberg <jrosberg -at- interwoven -dot- com>
wrote:

> All
>
>
>
> I've been given a challenge, and would greatly appreciate your advice,
> assistance, suggestions, and/or commiseration.
>
>
>
> During a series of conversations with my boss (a remarkably rational,
> non-tech writer VP), he asked a number of questions, all of which boil
> down to the following.
>
>
>
> "What's the measure of a world-class Tech Pubs department?"
>
>
>
> He went on to say that he felt we were doing a very credible job,
> especially in light of the expanding requirements/static resources with
> which we live, but impressions don't count for much (especially in an
> engineering environment).
>
>
>
> We work in a software company, as part of the engineering team. Along
> with Tech Pub and other things, he is also responsible for the QA
> function. He rattled off some QA-type statistics (code coverage, testing
> automation, trends in bugs found/fixed) as good examples of how a QA
> team in Company X might be compared to a QA team in Company Y.
>
>
>
> I did not put the dreaded term "metrics" in the subject line - I'm not
> looking for way to track our progress against internal goals, nor our
> improvement (or otherwise) compared to our past performance. What I
> would like to be able to do is compare our performance against that of
> another, mythical, world-class software doc team.
>
>
>
> I'm sure I'm not the first person that's been so tasked, and wiggled out
> of tracking keystrokes per minute, typos per furlong, or doc bugs per
> release.
>
>
>
> So - anyone have any ideas?
>
>
>
> Thanks a million
>
>
>
>
>
> John Rosberg
>
> Director, Document Development & Localization
>
> Interwoven, Inc.
>
> Tel: 312-364-2505
>
> Cell : 312-952-4683
>
> GMT - 6 Hours
>
> jrosberg -at- interwoven -dot- com
>
>
>
> Visit www.interwoven.com <http://www.interwoven.com/>
>
> Enterprise Content Management Solutions for Business
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True single source, conditional content, PDF export, modular help.
Help & Manual is the most powerful authoring tool for technical
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