The writing process is usually the most challenging part of a documentation project. Because it is a creative process, writing is difficult to manage and challenging to keep on track with defined project goals. Writers sometimes miss deadlines or their work requires extensive revisions before the material can be published. When writers do not adhere to formatting guidelines and style conventions, time, effort, and costs required to edit and process the material increase.
The best strategy to mitigate the impact of writing issues in documentation projects is to provide a reliable collaboration platform, implement clear communication paths, and emphasize teamwork between writers, editors, graphic artists, desktop publishers, proofreaders and the rest of the project team. For example, experienced developmental editors can show inexperienced authors how to improve the structure of the manuscript for clarity of thoughts and logical arrangement of content. Furthermore, desktop-publishing experts can provide authors with document templates that are intuitive and easy to use. The better the quality of the raw material, the less time is needed for editing and desktop publishing. When provided with manuscripts in acceptable quality, experienced documentation professionals can often recover time lost during the writing phase or at least ensure that no further delays occur.
With Biblioso you can:
- Provide authors with clean document templates professionally developed by our desktop-publishing experts.
- Provide authors with clear formatting and style guidelines maintained in central style sheet databases.
- Let authors and editors collaborate on formatting and style issues in the beginning of the writing phase so that the quality of the raw material can be ensured before editing.
- Provide authors and the rest of the project team with clear, convenient, and managed communication paths.
- Track project issues centrally and solve them as soon as possible.
- Inform all project members immediately when delays occur so that all team members can reschedule.
- Inform customers immediately about new projected milestones, project end dates, and the reasons why potential delays occur.
- Have a pool of additional resources available, such as ghost writers and developmental editors, to make up for any writer weaknesses.
| In addition to these measures, Biblioso uses risk management and contingency planning methodologies to mitigate the impact of writing issues on the overall project plan and delivery dates. |
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