Do You To-Do? I Do

Have trouble getting things done?

Does your to-do list just keep growing and growing?

Do you even have a to-do list?

I look at my desktop and I see things that have been building up over the past week: business cards, reference books, fax receipts, a network drawing, 743 legal pads and notebooks, and several proposals varying in thickness. It’s a microcosm of my job duties.

Emerging from the organized mess are two glorious sheets of paper that I would be lost without: my to-do lists.

Multi tasking is a necessity for most people, and tracking those tasks is even more of a necessity (if such a thing is possible).

I use two to-do lists. One tells me what absolutely has to get done today, and the other is for the week. My long term projects I keep on a very handy whiteboard.

While the Internet can often be a time waster, there are a number of sites with extremely helpful productivity hints. They feature productivity suggestions for your life and for your computer. I’ve listed some of my favorites below:

http://www.lifehacker.com – “Tips and downloads for getting things done”

http://www.43folders.com - “Productivity and time management tips”

http://www.zenhabits.net - “Simple productivity”

They feature useful and fun articles such as “How to Be Your Own Executive Assistant in 3 Easy Steps” and “Fight Morning Grogginess”

Enjoy!

--- Adam Geyer, Project Analyst, Documentation Strategies Inc.

Competing in a competitive worker’s market

Truly the hardest thing to do in today’s IT employment market is being competitive. The process of reaching the monetary goal that most Information Technology employees have set for themselves can sometimes be very tough; however, it doesn’t have to be impossible.

A large portion of today’s working IT class is unwilling to take a pay-cut to get a good job. It’s definitely unreasonable for most of us to take more than a 30% cut to be competitive but it’s SMART to find out what the market is offering and make yourself a little less expensive to be competitive against other prospective employees who aren’t even open to a $5 reduction in their consulting rate.

Employers are becoming EXTREMELY choosy and critical of those who come knocking their doors down for work and it’s quite understandable. Other than you, ‘the consultant’ providing important & necessary services for your employers, employers have a lot to offer even if you’re working as a C2C in a consulting engagement.

The most important thing to realize about today’s market is that the number of jobs available pale in comparison to the number of prospective employees looking for work. So next time a recruiter speaks to you about a ceiling rate take those words seriously and make yourself available for a little less to get that job.

--- Mel Aly, IT Recruiter, Documentation Strategies, Inc.

Keeping up with SarBox Documentation Requirements

I’ve been thinking about Sox and the question “What is the single most challenging Sarbanes-Oxley issue today?

Search the internet, go to seminars, and speak with auditors. The impact that Sox is making on big and small public companies is profound. Studies report that small cap public companies ($100M or less in revenues), which in July 2007 were required to meet compliance with Section 404, are spending an average of 1.3% of their revenues to meet compliance requirements.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re big or small, as the Act does not make any distinction between sizes in its compliance requirements. To adhere to Sox’s requirements, it costs money.

Companies on average are expending thousands of staffing hours to meet just Sec. 404 compliance, which results in millions of dollars in G & A expenses.

While established companies strive to meet compliance deadlines and new companies rush to achieve initial compliance, most companies are faced with the intricacies of SOX.

Examining documentation generated by Sarbanes-Oxley efforts, most companies are asking themselves several questions: Are our processes well designed? Automated? Efficient & effective? How can we minimize this expense?

As an accountant in the private sector for over twenty years I ask myself what I would do to implement compliance.

Automated content management for current and archived documentation in key areas like transaction records, financial reporting, auditing, IT securities and internal controls would be a priority. Costs and complexity would be reduced, internal controls would be strengthened and integrity levels increased. The possibility of human error, lost documents or fraud would be minimized.

With increasing in-house staffing costs and professional expenses (auditing and legal) the key is to maintain compliance with the least impact on the bottom line. It’s not a question of how much you’re willing to spend, but how you can minimize what you HAVE to spend. Would I outsource? Maybe some or ALL? The answer may be yes. More about that in a future post.

--- Bridget Chandler, Controller, Documentation Strategies

I don’t have time to read, but I can listen

I have the good fortune to live far from the maddening crowd.

However, I then need to drive pretty far to get to my job. While I am on my long drive I want that time to be productive and the radio only gets me so far. I have a long backlog of technical and job-related books and papers to read but don’t have time during the day. There are podcasts of all sorts, but I go through these too quickly for them to fill all that time.

My wish is the availability of technical books as recorded speech. They don’t have to be read by fabulous readers; a computer would do just fine. I am currently reading three different technical books when I have a spare minute. How about if I could get these books in a format that could be uploaded to my IPod? Then I would have a greater choice of how I spend my time in the car.

I know the technology is readily available and somewhat ubiquitous. My latest version of Acrobat (8.0) has the capability to read anything I highlight. Publishers could easily create these files for customers. How about a system where if I buy the book I can also get a sound file of the text from a publisher? All they would need to do is run a voice synthesis engine across the text of the book and make the resulting file available to anyone who can prove they own the book! I know there are issues to be resolved, but it would not be difficult.

The implementation of this service would get my attention and I would be more apt to buy books from publishers offering this service than from publishers that don’t. C’mon O’Reilly, how about it?

John Sturman, Senior Consultant, Documentation Strategies, Inc.

Technical Writing

In creative writing, reality can be defined using any parameters in any pattern. In technical writing, reality results from the parameters. The greatest disservice done to software is the belief that the language describing and explaining its concepts has to be dry to be accurate, dull to be understandable. Software applications are better understood through careful, judicious use of rhetorical language: metaphors, similes, and mechanical techniques such as white space, bullets and intuitive graphics. Appealing to the user's figurative mind through language does not diminish his or her ability to grasp a complex concept.

To present complex ideas, we need quality communication. Software drives much of our businesses, yet what makes an application stand out from the many? Ease of use.
Software must be used before an ROI is realized. Training, guides, and references are the gateways to understanding and appreciating software. A well-written manual makes a software product more user-friendly, and saves technical support time. Crafted training opens software potential. Documentation and training are silent sale representatives.

The writer’s job through training and documentation is to make the client successful. The writer’s work is more than documenting or explaining, it is collaboration between people - an interdisciplinary approach. The writer must be mindful of the perspectives of each contributor, and inspire him or her to give the best information possible for the benefit of the user.

Technical writers best represent their companies as customer advocates and skilled translators.



Ron Milos
Techncial Writer
Documentation Strategies

Recruiting and relationships in today’s world

Imagine you’re working at your desk and another employee stops by to pass on some upsetting news: There may be a mass layoff due to tight budget constraints.

You think to yourself I’ve been here a long time, my boss loves me and I always finish my work on time. I’ll be safe.

Later that week a couple of employees are called into the departmental manager’s office. After coming out they assure everyone that the manager only asked about the status of their current projects. The next day they both get let go due to “poor performance”. It could have been “budget reduction” or “business realignment” just as well.

In the current business environment, loyalty to employees is a thing of the past. People come and go, often with no good reason.

Once reality sets in some people wallow in despair, some relocate or retire, but many seek the assistance of professional recruiting firms.

Many recruiters will assure you that they have the best relationships with the clients they’re working with. They will mention all of the lunches they’ve shared and all their mutual friends. However, 85% of the time this isn’t the truth and unfortunately, they won’t be the ones suffering because of it. You will.

Make sure to do your homework on the recruiting firm you’re thinking about working with. Don’t be afraid to ask them about the business they’ve done with a particular client in the past, and always ask whether they meet with clients and consultants face-to-face.

Make sure to note who speaks with you about which clients. It’s also important to make sure that you’re not submitted to the same job by more than one firm because if you are, it could damage your chances of being hired. It helps to meet with the recruiting firm you are working with and maintain strong relationships with those you want to represent you.

In the end, a large portion of the recruiting firm’s success rate is about relationships - relationships with you, with the client, and with other vendors and local professional organizations. So before you run to that mega-firm that you thought could help you in an instant, consider working with smaller firms that value personal relationships. A strong bond between parties leads to continued success.

--- Mel Aly, Recruiter, Documentation Strategies Inc.

Cool Content Concepts

I’m surrounded by people who template. This intimidates me – my comfort level sits somewhere between Notepad and Word, and I just threw out my Lotus 123 diskettes (5 inch…). So from my standpoint, content management was not something I was ready to embrace. Until now.

I realize there are lots of people who appreciate authoring environments and source control and all that HTML stuff, but not me. I’m usually too busy just trying to get my ideas down on paper. But even for me, content management systems have two compelling benefits I can appreciate and value:

The first is single sourcing: interchangeable pieces of content you can reuse over and over in many places. You only need to maintain content in one place. You know who changed it and where it gets published. And when you change it, everywhere it appears changes too (well, if you want it to). No more version confusion. No more out-of-whack documents.

The second benefit is multi-media publishing: my content is endpoint agnostic. Write something once and use it in manuals, white papers, web pages, online help and any other place it fits. Sure, some guy smarter than me has to build some templates, but once we get past that little bump everything zooms out with something only slightly more complicated than the push of a button. I love it.

The whole thing makes me want to learn about templates. Tomorrow.

--- Jeff Klein, COO, Documentation Strategies

AuthorIT -- My new best friend

At Documentation Strategies we are always on the look out for technologies and tools that support the needs of our customers. AuthorIT continues to prove itself one of the great finds we have come across.

AuthorIT is an authoring environment, a content management system (CMS), and a publishing engine, all rolled up into one fully-integrated application. For those of you wanting your content to be a single source for many different output formats, this product is ideal. AuthorIT stores your content in small chunks that can be easily assembled into "books" and published to whatever format is called for. Output formats include Word, PDF, Web pages (either as HTML or XHTML), HTML Help, JavaHelp, Oracle Help, and WinHelp. You can also create standard XML and DITA from your content when working with other technologies. If you know the technology to which you are outputting, the formatting is quite simple as the application uses the underlying styles of the target format. For example, customizing your output to Word merely requires the creation of a Word template in the format you require. Using mappings in AuthorIT, output is automatically transformed into your desired look and feel.

I spent 12+ years as a FrameMaker die-hard and am quite used to going through the many steps needed to create the different output formats required by a typical technical writer. Creating my content in FrameMaker lets me take advantage of its robust editing environment, cross-reference features and formatting choices. From Framemaker I can print or create PDFs. If I want HTML, I can either use the built-in capabilities of Frame or, better, WebWorks Publisher. Once you get used to it, WebWorks does a fairly good job of HTML needs, including web pages and CHM, but you need to learn the interface and convoluted formatting language. Frame can now export as XML and even does a form of DITA.

However, this multi-application solution requires knowledge and mastery of different applications as well as the need to tweak and fiddle as the programs evolve. My new favorite tool is much easier to work with. From what I have seen of the new version of AuthorIT coming out soon, it's just going to get better and better.

---John Sturman, Senior Consultant, Documentation Strategies, Inc.

Wondering about SOX compliance? More about the Sarbanes-Oxley Act

The Public Company Accounting Reform & Investor Protection Act is commonly called SOX or Sarbox. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board is in-charge of overseeing and regulating compliance. Effective July 30, 2002, all public corporations are required to certify as SOX compliant.

Like any other regulation it should be addressed methodically, via proper analysis, documentation and study. Some sections of SOX are more pertinent to compliance then others.

To assist those seeking to meet the demands of this act, the following link is helpful: www.thecaq.aicpa.org/Resources/Sarbanes+Oxley.

SOX is arranged into eleven titles. One of the most important and challenging sections within these is 404.

Section 404 requires:

• Companies must have the ability to sustain compliance.
• Documentation structure with clear accountability.
• Documented efficiency of operating and financial structure, procedures, and policies.
• An enabling technology structure with IT securities.
  

Although this is quite a lot to deliver, there are ways your organization can successfully address the challenge presented by SOX.

Solutions

• Form a compliance team.
• Implement financial compliance processes.
• Documentation/IT Consultants – Get support with expertise to identify your documentation or technology needs to help minimize non-compliance risks. They’ll do the work that a public accounting firm won’t do, such as preparing and implementing whitepapers and electronic documentation.
  

Not only are public companies required to comply but SOX is also hitting the private sector. Trends have found that one of four privately held businesses have voluntarily adopted some of the SOX practices. Why? To help create better companies: companies that invite both public and private investors, merger and acquisition prospects, and customers. Many private companies lack formal, documented controls, exposing them to unlimited risk.

One last reason to consider compliance: To limit their own risks, many lenders and insurance companies are applying more stringent certification requirements, like those of SOX, to privately held companies.

--- Bridget Chandler, Controller, Documentation Strategies, Inc.