Do you voluntarily develop long-term projects on the job?
John Posada
I know that most of us are up to our eyeballs in keeping up with the
incoming workload.
However, I'd like to know how you approach working on side projects that
require long term development before introducing tem to your boss.
I'll give you an example. My documentation provides a subset of information
in a certain way, over a span of 200+ pages of static information. The users
like it and they use it. However, I know that if presented in a different
way, it could be so much more valuable. Therefore, when I get a chance to
work on it, maybe 30 minutes a day, I'm converting static pages of
information to a searchable database.
I've been working on this for about a month and nobody here knows about
this, though I'll be ready to introduce it in about 2 weeks.
Does anyone do this type of thing? If so, do you tell anyone or do you
surprise them with this?
If you've done this, what has been the reaction of your management. Do they
like this/ Do they mind not having been informed every step? This is the
third time I'm doing something like this here and my manager loves it.
What has been the reaction to those around you?
John Posada
Information Hunter-Gatherer
Special Projects; Information Technology
Barnes&Noble.com
NY: 212-414-6656
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John Fleming
On Wed, 27 Aug 2003 18:43:34 -0400, while chained to a desk in
the scriptorium, JPo...@book.com (John Posada) wrote:
| $I know that most of us are up to our eyeballs in keeping up with the
| $incoming workload.
| $
| $However, I'd like to know how you approach working on side projects that
| $require long term development before introducing tem to your boss.
I recently did a 44-page proposal to make an enhancement (i.e.,
"correction") to the methodology used to generate the numbers for
an internal report.
By the time my own number crunching on the impact of the change
eas done, I had an Excel workbook with close to 400 worksheets
covering five years worth of data. (The boss still doesn't know
about the workbook.) Not everything from the workbook found its
way into the proposal.
We'd been producing this internal document using a methodology
that slightly overstated our results for close to fifteen years
and previous attempts by others to get it modified had met with
no success.
Drawing on the experience of others, I determined what the larger
issues were and wrote the proposal to address these concerns.
Then I brought my coworkers into the picture, getting them to
review my work. It helped give them part ownership.
Then we arranged a meeting with the boss so we could present this
thing.
I knew we'd won the boss over when, a few days later he came by
and asked me to make a few changes to the proposal so he could
present it to his boss.
It took a bit of work, but in the end we got what we wanted.
--
John Fleming
Technical Writer
Edmonton, Alberta
Sean Brierley
Those sound cool!!
Cheers,
Sean
--- John Fleming <john...@hotmail.com> wrote:
|
| On Wed, 27 Aug 2003 18:43:34 -0400, while chained to
| a desk in
| the scriptorium, JPo...@book.com (John Posada)
| wrote:
|
| > $I know that most of us are up to our eyeballs in
| keeping up with the
| > $incoming workload.
| > $
| > $However, I'd like to know how you approach
| working on side projects that
| > $require long term development before introducing
| tem to your boss.
|
| I recently did a 44-page proposal to make an
| enhancement (i.e.,
| "correction") to the methodology used to generate
| the numbers for
| an internal report.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Gary S. Callison
On Thu, 28 Aug 2003, JPo...@book.com (John Posada) wrote:
| I know that most of us are up to our eyeballs in keeping up with the
| incoming workload.
| However, I'd like to know how you approach working on side projects that
| require long term development before introducing tem to your boss.
| I'll give you an example. My documentation provides a subset of information
| in a certain way, over a span of 200+ pages of static information. The users
| like it and they use it. However, I know that if presented in a different
| way, it could be so much more valuable. Therefore, when I get a chance to
| work on it, maybe 30 minutes a day, I'm converting static pages of
| information to a searchable database.
Example #2: our information management system is, er, 'kind of chaotic',
in much the same way that Lake Erie may contain some water. Now, one look
at my desk will tell you that I'm hardly an organizational freak or
anything, but I don't do well in large complicated systems organized in
the "most recent and most important stuff is nearer the top of the pile"
methodology. So, I set out to do something about it.
Step 1 was a fileshare in a heirarchical structure that mirrored the way
projects break down into functional modules. Step 2 involved "some sort of
change management". The change management system proposed was 'most recent
change is in red text, next most recent change is in blue text, and
updated documents will be emailed to all of the stakeholders'.
This bothers me deeply, knowing that there's stuff out there like VSS and
SharePoint and automated change management tools. So step two: I got the
local network guy to give me a castoff PC, and built it with
Debian/Apache/exim/RCS/twiki, and got it to play nice with the local
mailserver for email notifications of changes.
Downloading and building all of the software, a couple kernel recompiles,
and general making sure everything works, I probably invested 30 hours in
this project over the course of a month or two.
| I've been working on this for about a month and nobody here knows about
| this, though I'll be ready to introduce it in about 2 weeks.
| Does anyone do this type of thing? If so, do you tell anyone or do you
| surprise them with this?
I told everyone "I'm not sure the way we're doing things now is
necessarially the best way. Let me get this server, and I'll build
something, and see what you think?" Boss knew I was 'up to something', but
didn't really know what it was going to be. (Nobody here including myself
had ever heard of 'twiki' before I did some research and discovered it
might be something we could use...)
| If you've done this, what has been the reaction of your management. Do they
| like this/ Do they mind not having been informed every step? This is the
| third time I'm doing something like this here and my manager loves it.
| What has been the reaction to those around you?
So far, I've gotten two "Wow, that looks really cool, wish I had time to
learn how to use it"s. Everybody is too busy chopping wood to stop and
sharpen axes.
*le sigh*
--
Huey
John Fleming
On Wed, 27 Aug 2003 20:01:29 -0500 (CDT), while chained to a desk
in the scriptorium, hu...@interaccess.com ("Gary S. Callison")
wrote:
| $So far, I've gotten two "Wow, that looks really cool, wish I had time to
| $learn how to use it"s. Everybody is too busy chopping wood to stop and
| $sharpen axes.
Isn't that the truth.
When I first started p;ugging away with Visual Basic for
Application for Excel, I wondered how I was going to find enough
time to get good at it.
I soldiered away--a few minutes here and a few minutes there--and
while I am still far from being an expert, I can do some really
cool stuff with it.
I've even got some pretty nifty macros in my tool lit now that do
things with charts that are impossible without the macros. Not
only do the charts look sharper, but I can put them together
faster than some of my coworkers can put together more basic
charts.
Many years ago, in a company training session they had as watch a
Brian Tracy video. In this video, one thing Brian Tracy was
saying was, "When things are good, double the training budget.
When things are bad, quadruple it."
Time put into learning skills that make it easier to do the job
better does pay off in the long run.
John Fleming
Technical Writer
Edmonton, Alberta
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Bill Swallow
I publicly plan all that I do. Why? So I don't burn time on something that:
1. They don't want me doing.
2. Someone already knows how to do.
3. Might already be on someone's radar.
4. Is seen as a nice to have but not until time permits.
It's really good to think about such projects, but always make your
intentions public. You may get more out of it that way (or save yourself 30
minutes a day of discarded work). And, no matter if it's seen as good or
bad, you'll get points for initiative.
Bill Swallow
wswa...@nycap.rr.com
::: -----Original Message-----
::: However, I'd like to know how you approach working on side
::: projects that
::: require long term development before introducing tem to your boss.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
hol...@comcast.net
John Posada <JPo...@book.com> wrote:
|However, I'd like to know how you approach working on side projects that
|require long term development before introducing tem to your boss.
Typically, I want to have *something* to show as a working prototype, if
not a finished product.
I also try to break things into phases or chunks. For example, we have
static HTML pages of "notifications", in a regular format. Several are
usually produced each day. Long term, I'd like to see them be generated
from a database (why not?), but phase 1 was to make an admin tool that
just takes the information and spits the static HTML page out. Phase 2
was to automate the table of contents page that links to these notices
(pretty easy, now that I control the filenames). Each incremental step
brings benefits and moves things closer to the final goal.
|I've been working on this for about a month and nobody here knows about
|this, though I'll be ready to introduce it in about 2 weeks.
Best of luck! I hope it is well received.
|Does anyone do this type of thing? If so, do you tell anyone or do you
|surprise them with this?
My pattern so far seems to be, when new on a job, make it a surprise.
After some successes, I can give more, er, foreshadowing of what is to
come.
This is not to be sneaky, but simply because the nature of the beast
is that management doesn't understand all of the issues "on the ground",
the technology involved, etc. I trust that one of the reasons I was
hired was to improve work processes, without needing guidance every step
of the way.
|If you've done this, what has been the reaction of your management. Do they
|like this/ Do they mind not having been informed every step? This is the
|third time I'm doing something like this here and my manager loves it.
If whatever it is *really* does save time and/or produce better output,
then management usually loves it.
--
Greg Holmes
David Castro
I regularly develop things that might seem to be outside of the normal type of
work that a technical writer might do. But if I'm using more than a few hours
of company time, I start off with a well-researched and well-crafted proposal.
Especially if someone in my chain of command is a dictator or micro-manager.
It's just safer that way. (I do feel okay using more than a few hours of
company time to put together the proposal, though.)
Now, when it comes to working on cool things on my own time to use for work
(yes, I'm crazy, but if it's fun to put together, why not?), that's a whole
different matter. I've developed applications many times in the past to deal
with problems (such as adding some text to 6,000 HTML files, where grepping
wouldn't work), and have researched technologies that I might be able to
implement to handle an issue (as anyone who has read any of my posts where I go
on and on and on about JavaServer Pages knows :-).
-David Castro
email[at]davidcastro.com
http://jsp.davidcastro.com
Diane Evans
|
| >I know that most of us are up to our eyeballs in keeping up with the
| >incoming workload.
| >require long term development before introducing tem to your boss.
I often anticipate the needs of our division. It is not uncommon for my
boss to request a document or such, and I immediately show him a draft.
Since I don't get a lot a management direction, I don't know if you would
call it a "side project" or just doing what needs to be done.
Diane Evans
Technical Writer
Washington State Coordinator, Tombstone Project
http://www.rootsweb.com/~cemetery/washing.html
_________________________________________________________________
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David Tremblay
Hello all,
It's my first intervention on list, please be tolerant with my flaky
english...
It's a must to have long term project on the job, and TW should have
such because we always need to prove we worth the money they are
investing. Also, it's a business good practice to let the employees
train themselves. It's also a good practice to have R&D being part of
the organizational culture.
Management may not be willing to let you invest time to do those
"experiments" so in order to "please" them you must do it without they
aknowledgement. That's the "taking risk" skill one should developp and
drives the whole capitalistic economy.
Finaly, doing side projects may become a way to expand our expertise
beyond writing, and when times come to lay off you might save your a**
because you're not only a cost overhead on the product, you prove your
part of developments teams.
My 2 cents and have a nice day all...
David Tremblay
Service d'information
Rédaction technique et affaires documentaires
www.redactech.com :: tech...@mediom.com
(418) 647-9344 :: (514) 725-0867
Sean Hower
------------------------------------------
john "da man" posada asks:
Does anyone [work on long term projects]? If so, do you tell anyone or do you surprise them with this?
------------------------------------------
The only projects that I've done were with templates and writing proposals for a variety of things. I've also spent some time writing Javascripts to improve our help system. I did all of these as time permitted and I usually just started working without telling anyone.
------------------------------------------
If you've done this, what has been the reaction of your management. Do
they like this/ Do they mind not having been informed every step? This is the third time I'm doing something like this here and my manager loves it.
------------------------------------------
from "don't waste your time on this" to "good idea but not feasible" to "hey that's a cool idea". Now, at a previous job, I never would have done this because management would have viewed it as being upity or a real threat to them. So, I would think how management reacts to your inititive would depend on who's in management at your workplace.
But what I want to know, John, is why YOU are asking this question. I mean, you're like initiative guy! You should be a master at this sort of thing by now and should be giving advice to us! :-)
********************************************
"This is either madness or brilliant."
"It's remarkable how often those two traits coincide." -- Will Turner & Captain Jack Sparrow
Sean Hower - tech writer
http://hokum.freehomepage.com
_____________________________________________________________
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Kate Robinson
| However, I'd like to know how you approach working on side
| projects that require long term development before introducing
| Does anyone do this type of thing? If so, do you tell anyone or do you
| surprise them with this?
I've always done this kind of thing. If I see a script or process or
template that could make life easier, I go for it. It makes my job
interesting to me, long term.
Usually, everyone loves it. However, I've learned the hard way to nose
around and make sure that it's not on somebody else's performance plan, in
which case (a) my project will get flushed after all that work, or (b) there
will be two competing projects and all the annoying politics that result
from that.
Metaprojects I love; Machiavellian politics over non-life-threatening issues
I'm intensely allergic to. ("It's only documentation. It's not about
somebody's LIFE," I say. "But what about medical applications," they say.
"Face it. We're tech writers, not surgeons," I respond. They look at me,
their eyes bugging out. I think you'll agree this is the kind of
confrontation nobody wants to encourage.)
The job I'm in now is my first where I am specifically tasked with taking
care of just this kind of thing. I am overjoyed to have a job where I am
expected to do what I usually sneak around doing anyway.
Kate Robinson
TechComm Editor
TCS/TeleCommunication Systems Inc.
Dana Worley
On 27 Aug 2003 at 18:43, John Posada wrote:
| I've been working on this for about a month and nobody here knows
| about this, though I'll be ready to introduce it in about 2 weeks.
|
| Does anyone do this type of thing? If so, do you tell anyone or do you
| surprise them with this?
I agree with Mr. Swallow. You should keep others informed of your
efforts.
You can always put a little time, thought, and effort into whether a
project would be worthwhile, and maybe come up with a working
prototype or proof of concept, but before you start investing a lot of
time into a project it should be discussed with Those Who Care.
I prefer to keep my supervisor/his supervisors informed of exactly
what I am working on. I work on a lot of things at one time, and I
think they are impressed when they take the time to ask. Our group
recently went to lunch to celebrate the release of a product. The
President and my boss's boss came along. It felt good to sit at the
table and reel off a list of the projects I'm currently working on, any
hurdles I have with those, upcoming projects, and future things that I
see coming down the road.
Maybe it feels good to you to secretly sit back and work on a project
and then pull it out of your hat like a magician. But someday, this
approach may backfire.
I consider this exchange of information another form of job security.
It ensures that what I envision as priorities are priorities of the
company as well.
Dana W.
John Posada
It has nothing to do with "it feels good to you to secretly sit back and
work on a project
and then pull it out of your hat like a magician." They already know I'm a
magician. :-)
Some of it has to do with the definition of a camel, some has to do with the
fact that as long as you are getting done more than 100% of what they
expect, these above-and-beyond projects give you and the department the
ability to grow in directions not mandated and to try things that if they
fail, well, they fail with no damage to anyone, and some, maybe because
everything we do here in Special Projects is more entrepreneurial than
policy/program mandated.
I'm not saying every environment would allow this type of independence, nor
that every boss wants it, nor that every writer can pull it off. Just that
where I am, for whom I'm working, as I said in the original message "This is
the third time I'm doing something like this here and my manager loves it."
John Posada
Information Hunter-Gatherer
Special Projects; Information Technology
Barnes&Noble.com
NY: 212-414-6656
|I prefer to keep my supervisor/his supervisors informed of exactly
what I am working on. I work on a lot of things at one time, and I
think they are impressed when they take the time to ask. Our group
recently went to lunch to celebrate the release of a product. The
President and my boss's boss came along. It felt good to sit at the
table and reel off a list of the projects I'm currently working on, any
hurdles I have with those, upcoming projects, and future things that I
see coming down the road.
****************************************************************************
**********************************
This electronic mail message contains information that (a) is or may be
CONFIDENTIAL,
PROPRIETARY IN NATURE, OR OTHERWISE PROTECTED BY LAW FROM DISCLOSURE,
and (b) is intended only for the use of the addressee(s) named herein. If
you are not an
intended recipient, please contact the sender immediately and take the steps
necessary to
delete the message completely from your computer system.
Not Intended as a Substitute for a Writing: Notwithstanding the Uniform
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Act or any other law of similar effect, absent an express statement to the
contrary,
this e-mail message, its contents, and any attachments hereto are not
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an offer or acceptance to enter into a contract and are not otherwise
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this sender, barnesandnoble.com llc, barnesandnoble.com inc. or any other
person or entity.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Goober Writer
| I agree with Mr. Swallow. You should keep others
| informed of your efforts.
I also agree. Keeping people informed shows you as
more than a 40hr/week grunt who collects a paycheck at
the end of the week. It shows you take initiative in
solving work-related issues and enhancing
productivity, which labels you as a key contributor,
which is a damned good thing.
=====
Goober Writer
(because life is too short to be inept)
"As soon as you hear the phrase "studies show",
immediately put a hand on your wallet and cover your groin."
-- Geoff Hart
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Daniel Fisher
|Bill Swallow said: I publicly plan all that I do. Why? So I don't burn
time on something that:
1. They don't want me doing.
2. Someone already knows how to do.
3. Might already be on someone's radar.
4. Is seen as a nice to have but not until time permits.
--
I totally agree with Bill and practice it to the T. Through out my 11
years of technical writing, I've learned management would much rather be
aware of my ideas as well as my current projects. They have seen that as
good communication.
Currently, although I have a good understanding of what our business
needs, my boss has a more thorough knowledge and it's really his job to
ensure I have my priorities straight. Since our business priorities can
change fairly quickly, I keep him up to date when anything major
changes. For example, if another department wants a hot document
quickly, I let him know right away. Not telling him and using even
several hours of time on an unapproved project when there are so many
"approved" things to do is going around the chain of command.
Granted, I have a very good relationship with my boss and we see eye to
eye. He wants to be in tune with what we (the technical writers) do.
I've been lucky enough to have good boss's throughout my career and so I
don't know anything different. So far communicating like this has been
very rewarding for me.
Cheers,
-Daniel W. Fisher
Senior Technical Writer
Metro One Telecommunications, Inc.
Authority without wisdom is like a
heavy axe without an edge, fitter to
bruise than polish.
- Anne Bradstreet
Eileen Neumann
Hi,
JP asks:
| I'd like to know how you approach working on side projects that
(Catching up on my digests here...)
I'm all for initiative, and have been busy proposing various unrequested
projects myself, but wanted to offer this example of how this can go awry.
I'm currently in a situation where another employees' initiative is
impinging on my own work, and find it extremely irritating. I'm writing for
and more or less managing a fair-sized employee intranet. There are
definitely problems with the site, and I'm currently working on planning a
redesign for the coming year (my boss knows about this).
Because the Intranet has been limping along for a while, and employees must
use it to carry out job related procedures, other groups want improvement.
So another department, training, has decided they're going to insert
training modules at strategic places in the content on the site. They've
gone ahead an developed the modules, and I was informed the day of a project
launch that I should be inserting them (it's just a link...).
Now the modules are well designed, innovative and useful. But the Intranet
(my) group was not consulted or brought into this in any way. I'm busy
trying to develop usability studies, plans for navigation and organisation,
etc., and feel quite miffed that they have this huge plan that will be
foisted on me and go smack into the middle of my work. Maybe it's good,
maybe not, but I wanted to know about it before it was developed.
I'm sure John wouldn't do this. However, there's something to be said for
communicating what we're up to...
Eileen Neumann
Technical Writer
Toronto
John Posada
| projects myself, but wanted to offer this example of how this
| can go awry.
Just as with everything else, what projects you work on cannot be done so in
a vacuum.
I'm not advocating taking a thoughtless approach to this and I'm not
advocating doing this if you believe it is against your manager's or your
company's way of doing things. What you choose must be free from
encroachment on other people's responsibilities or territories, and if there
is the chance it does, they need to be queried.
OTOH, don't let the fear of what "might" happen get in the way of productive
results. Personally, my approach is that I'd rather take the initiative and
apologize later than ask permission and have nothing get off the ground, but
that's me. YMMV
John Posada
Senior Technical Writer
Barnes&Noble.com
NY: 212-414-6656
Dayton: 732-438-3372
"Alright, nobody move! I've got a dragon here, and I'm not afraid to use it"
---------- Donkey
****************************************************************************
**********************************
This electronic mail message contains information that (a) is or may be
CONFIDENTIAL,
PROPRIETARY IN NATURE, OR OTHERWISE PROTECTED BY LAW FROM DISCLOSURE,
and (b) is intended only for the use of the addressee(s) named herein. If
you are not an
intended recipient, please contact the sender immediately and take the steps
necessary to
delete the message completely from your computer system.
Not Intended as a Substitute for a Writing: Notwithstanding the Uniform
Electronic Transaction
Act or any other law of similar effect, absent an express statement to the
contrary,
this e-mail message, its contents, and any attachments hereto are not
intended to represent
an offer or acceptance to enter into a contract and are not otherwise
intended to bind
this sender, barnesandnoble.com llc, barnesandnoble.com inc. or any other
person or entity.
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