[austechwriter] Re: Software for managing documentation projects
- From: "Jill Nicholson" <jpnicho@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 11:46:24 +1000
Mike
JoAnn Hackos has such an animal but I do not know how current they keep it.
I think it was built on an older version of Excel than the one we currently
use. I know you added the data about hours per person, for example, and it
added this to total hours, converted it to costs etc and also produced
summaries whenever required. The program did automatically break down the
hours by document/project (and person) and automatically generate status
reports at the end of each week.
I know one of the summaries available was hours expended against hours
estimated etc etc. I think I still have examples of some of this activity.
I could tell you more off-line but why not go to her web-site and send her
an email (Comtech Services Inc).
Cheers
Jill
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Buckler" <mbuckler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, 15 July 2003 8:43
Subject: [austechwriter] Software for managing documentation projects
> Does anyone use any purpose built software for managing doco projects?
> I'm not thinking of a generic tool like Microsoft Project, but
> something more targeted towards the specific needs of tech writers -
> something to be used during the course of a project, not just at the
start.
>
> Recently I did some work for a client that involved simultaneously
> working on five documents for three projects spread over a six week
> period. It was difficult to keep track on the number of hours spent on
> each document and the phone/email/verbal correspondence between myself
> and the dozen or so stakeholders involved. Keeping a journal helped to
> some degree, but it didn't allow me to automatically break down the
> hours by document/project or automatically generate status reports at
> the end of each week.
>
> If no such doco project management program exists, would anyone be
> interested in using a program if I created one, and more importantly
> be prepared to _pay_ for it? (this is not going to be a freeware / open
> source project).
>
> The high level goals are to create something that:
> a) Allows information from stakeholders to be easily captured and time
> stamped.
> b) The captured information can be associated with one or more
> documents/projects.
> c) Time tracking on a per document basis.
> d) Automatic generation of status reports.
> e) Anything else that you can think of...........
>
> Like all software projects, the goals are a bit vague at the moment,
> but it's only the beginning and I've only been thinking about this
> for a day or so.
>
> If I do go ahead, there are a few certainties due to the tools at hand
> and my depth of programming knowledge.
> + It will be a conventional Windows GUI client with the emphasis on
> rapid keyboard navigation.
> + The database back end will probably be an embedded version of the
> Firebird database due to the zero licensing cost and ease of
> deployment (no database driver deployment issues).
> - It will not be a web application because the browser interface is
> not designed for rapid data entry or rapid data lookup.
> - It will not run under Linux (except perhaps under Wine).
> - There will not be a native Mac version.
> - The database back end will not use Access, the MSDE, SQL Server or
> Oracle due to database driver deployment issues.
> - User settings will not be stored in the registry.
>
> For those that are interested, Firebird is a "zero administration", zero
cost
> industrial strength SQL database derived from the commercial Interbase
> database sold by Borland. Firebird scales to GB so there is potential
> for storing documents as well as metadata.
>
>
> Best regards,
> Mike Buckler
>
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