Looking for something?
by Anne Jones, Carolina Chapter Senior Member
Bravo to Brian Castelli for his virtuoso performance at the May 15, 2007 meeting of the Technical Editing SIG! Brian’s audience consisted of about 4 people at EMC and another 10 to 12 who connected by web and phone from remote sites.
For 20 years, Brian has been an engineer at EMC who likes to step outside of his role as an engineer in many creative ways. He presented his outline of how to successfully plan and lead a project by using a musical analogy.
Brian pointed out that with most companies now pressed to do more with less, one thing all of us, engineers and writers alike, can do is to “turn up the value (not the volume).” If we work in harmony and keep our eyes and ears open for reusability, we can increase the value we offer to our companies at the same or lower cost.
To prepare to add value, project leaders and team members need to give their attention to
In tuning, the musicians prepare their respective instruments to play the music. As technical writers, we can tune up by ensuring that we are up-to-date on the latest tools and technology.
The project leaders can also help their teams tune by communicating a vision of what the team is intended to accomplish and why and a strategy of who will contribute and when and how the vision will be accomplished. Project leaders can also assist the tuning by studying the business culture: what are the barriers to and opportunities for implementing the vision?
After the kick-off meeting, Brian summarizes the results in a “Findings” document, which is a living document that continues to be updated as the project progresses. He includes in this document a “gap analysis” where he looks for goals without tasks and tasks without goals. If any of gaps exist, they are covered at a later meeting.
One final “bravo” for Brian: To prepare for addressing our SIG, Brian even researched articles on the STC to learn “our language.” After all the time we technical writers spend trying to understand “engineerese,” don’t you love an engineer who wants to speak the language of a technical writer? Bravo, Brian! We’d love an encore any time!
Anne Jones can be reached at Anne dot Jones at tekelec dot com. Brian Castelli can be reached at castelli_brian at emc dot com.
Bravo to Brian Castelli for his virtuoso performance at the May 15, 2007 meeting of the Technical Editing SIG! Brian’s audience consisted of about 4 people at EMC and another 10 to 12 who connected by web and phone from remote sites.
For 20 years, Brian has been an engineer at EMC who likes to step outside of his role as an engineer in many creative ways. He presented his outline of how to successfully plan and lead a project by using a musical analogy.
Brian pointed out that with most companies now pressed to do more with less, one thing all of us, engineers and writers alike, can do is to “turn up the value (not the volume).” If we work in harmony and keep our eyes and ears open for reusability, we can increase the value we offer to our companies at the same or lower cost.
To prepare to add value, project leaders and team members need to give their attention to
- Tuning
- Timbre
- Tutti
Tuning
Project leaders can help their teams tune up by encouraging each member of their project teams to adopt an achieving attitude, serve the customer, collaborate, and improve their performance in their own circle of control.In tuning, the musicians prepare their respective instruments to play the music. As technical writers, we can tune up by ensuring that we are up-to-date on the latest tools and technology.
The project leaders can also help their teams tune by communicating a vision of what the team is intended to accomplish and why and a strategy of who will contribute and when and how the vision will be accomplished. Project leaders can also assist the tuning by studying the business culture: what are the barriers to and opportunities for implementing the vision?
Timbre
In musical terms, timbre means the quality or “color” of tone of an instrument or voice. Brian suggested the following timbre strategies for project team members:- Build alliances. Remember that people support what they help to create. Encourage other team members (including customers) to help create by:
- Learning to speak their “language” and framing the problem in terms they’re familiar with.
- Avoiding noise and hard selling.
- Acknowledging, celebrating, and building on small victories. Let your victories yield victories for other groups. (Brian gave an example of how a usability group grew from 3 to 18 members in three years due to small victories, such as analyzing where a product would falter and then telling customer service to be prepared for questions in those areas.)
- Jump start your success:
- Do your homework.
- Present your view and let others on the team correct your view. Brian likes to say, “This is my view; let’s work together to correct it.” Allowing others to correct your view is a very effective way to encourage participation.
Tutti
Tutti is the part of a musical composition where all the performers take part. In leading projects, Brian starts the tutti performance with a Project Kick-off Workshop (PKOW). The goals of a PKOW are to:- Position the project with business goals.
- Identify users and their needs.
- Explore the alternatives, benefits, and risks (including the risk of not implementing the project). Analyze the competition and develop fall-back and contingency plans.
- Identify the top ten tasks and the expected outcome of each (keep these at a high level and postpone details until later meetings).
- Outline what metrics will measure success.
After the kick-off meeting, Brian summarizes the results in a “Findings” document, which is a living document that continues to be updated as the project progresses. He includes in this document a “gap analysis” where he looks for goals without tasks and tasks without goals. If any of gaps exist, they are covered at a later meeting.
Finale
Although Brian is an engineer and a project manager, many of the concepts that Brian presented are relevant to us technical writers in our everyday work. We can all use these ideas to improve our tuning, timbre, and tutti.One final “bravo” for Brian: To prepare for addressing our SIG, Brian even researched articles on the STC to learn “our language.” After all the time we technical writers spend trying to understand “engineerese,” don’t you love an engineer who wants to speak the language of a technical writer? Bravo, Brian! We’d love an encore any time!
Anne Jones can be reached at Anne dot Jones at tekelec dot com. Brian Castelli can be reached at castelli_brian at emc dot com.
Top of page
Staff and authors:
