One of the more difficult tasks facing any publications department is coming up with accurate and realistic schedules, and modifying them while the project is underway. This section provides some basic information about schedule estimates and contingencies, but it is by no means exhaustive. For a list of books that deal specifically with managing documentation projects, see the section "Project Management" in Appendix A.
Table B-2 shows a rough formula for calculating the hours needed for documentation tasks. [4] Keep in mind that these are estimates only and that they may vary depending upon the nature of the documentation (for example, very technical documentation is usually more time-consuming to write and edit than overview information) and outside factors such as poor source material or limited availability of subject matter experts.
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Activity Formula for Calculating Hours
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Writing new text 3 - 5 hours per page
Revising existing text 1 - 3 hours per page
Editing 6 - 8 pages per hour
Indexing 5 pages per hour
Production preparation 5 percent of all other activities
Project management 10 - 15 percent of all other activities
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You may want to consider setting up a system to track the amount of time your staff members spend on each project, which you can use to more accurately predict the amount of time needed for future projects.
When developing the schedule, tie your deliverables to project milestones rather than calendar dates. Estimate the time before or after a milestone at which you expect to deliver the component (for example, "The first draft of the documentation will be completed two weeks after the alpha version of the software is delivered to Product Test"). That way, you can more easily adjust your documentation schedule to match the progress of the project. Be realistic in your own assessment of actual progress in other departments, such as product development and testing.
Table B-3 shows a typical publications project schedule.
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Milestone Date Information
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Engineering specification Date from engineering
Documentation plan Start and end dates
Alpha software delivery Due date
First draft Due date
Technical review Start and end dates
Developmental edit Same start and end dates as technical review
Usability test of draft Same start and end dates as technical review
Index development Same start and end dates as technical review
User interface freeze Date from engineering
Illustrations complete Due date
Feature/function freeze Date from engineering
Second draft Due date
Copy edit Start and end dates
Validity testing Same start and end dates as copy edit
Final draft Due date
Proofread Start and end dates
Final draft to production (hard-copy Due date
and on-line versions)
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Be sure to keep track of changes in delivery dates, and let other departments involved in the project know if a date is going to slip. Setting expectations up front is the best way to establish credibility (and to call attention to late deliverables on which your own deliverables depend).
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