CIDM e-newsletter Volume 4, Issue 5/6

CIDM e-newsletter
Volume 4, Issue 5/6
May/June 2004

A monthly e-newsletter from The Center for Information-Development Management (CIDM)
JoAnn T. Hackos, PhD, CIDM Director
http://www.infomanagementcenter.com

We hope you enjoy our HTML format!
If you would like to receive the CIDM e-newsletter in plain-text format, visit http://www.infomanagementcenter.com/enewsletter.shtml,
fill out the subscription form, and choose the plain-text format.

News & Events

The Rare Bird Award

The Rare Bird Award recognizes outstanding managers and/or team practices that make organizations more efficient and effective on behalf of their companies and customers. Read more about the Rare Bird.

CIDM Best Practices conference 2004 -- October 18–20, 2004

Read more about the conference and how you can register.

Staff Changes at Comtech Services

Comtech Services says hello and goodbye to some of our staff.

CIDM Welcomes Medtronic

The CIDM would like to welcome the Medtronic Neurological Technical Communications department as a new member.

Upcoming Workshops

The CIDM sponsors the following workshops:

Managing Your Documentation Projects
William Hackos, Jr., PhD,
June 16–17
San Diego, CA

Are You Ready for Content Management and Structured Authoring: Managing the Change
JoAnn Hackos, PhD,
June 23
Phone Conference

Minimalism: Creating Manuals That People Will Use
JoAnn Hackos, PhD,
June 24–25
Seattle, WA
September 8–9
Roseville, MN

Outsourcing and Offshoring Information Development: A Management Challenge
JoAnn Hackos, PhD,
July 15–16
Denver, CO

For more information on these and other workshops, visit the JoAnn Hackos Workshop Series Web site

Offshore Outsourcing
JoAnn Hackos, PhD
CIDM Director

www.infomanagementcenter.com

The IEEE-USA represents electrical engineers, computer scientists, systems analysts, programmers, and other high-tech workers in its 225,000-member organization. Among the members are a small group that identifies itself with technical communication through the subgroup, The Professional Communication Society (PCS).

Read the article

More articles
Managing Managers: Building a Management Team
You Want Customer Feedback?—Go and get it!
CIDM Adds New Leadership

Best Practices newsletter CIDM Members: you can now search the Newsletter Archives online. You can purchase the Best Practices newsletter online even if you aren't a CIDM member. A subscription is $99 per year. For subscribers outside the US, the cost is $109.
*June 2004 Best Practices* newsletter**
Article	Author
A Tale of Two Cost Reductions	Beth Barrow
From the Director—Developing a Community of Practice	JoAnn Hackos
Recent Research on Minimalism	Hans van der Meij
A Tipping Point Perspective on Minimalism	Susan Harkus
The Essential Use Case	Karen Steele
The Innovator's Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth	JoAnn Hackos

Managing Managers: Building a Management Team
Julie A. Bradbury
Independent Consultant

If you are a manager who is responsible for a department, a number of remote groups, or a combination, you most likely manage managers. You already realize that managing them is more than answering emails, writing performance reviews, and having the final say. You often become a mentor or guide with mostly positive results for the manager and for you. In this article, I'm suggesting that you have another opportunity available to you. I believe that you can build a management team and tap a resource that benefits you, your direct reports, and the company.

Read the article

You Want Customer Feedback?–Go and get it!
Vesa Purho
Development Manager, Nokia

How many times have you wondered that if you could just get feedback and requirements from your customers, you would know how to improve your documentation? You may have even attached forms to your documents and allowed the customers to send you feedback through your Web site. Have they worked? My bet is that they haven't, and even if you have received an odd feedback, how do you know that the other users think the same? The only way to get requirements for your documentation is to go and get them.

Read the article

Feedback
Have you found this issue useful? Got a great story idea? We’d like your input and suggestions. Please contact lisa.finger@comtech-serv.com about any comments you may have.

Important Subscription Information
Subscribe to the e-newsletter—Unsubscribe to the e-newsletter—Change your email address

The Center for Information-Development Management
The Center for Information-Development Management (CIDM) is an organization of information-development, training, and support managers across the United States and internationally. The CIDM is directed by Dr. JoAnn Hackos, international leader in the management of the design, development, and dissemination of information to customers and employees. Under her leadership, the CIDM conducts benchmark studies among member organizations and elsewhere, sponsors research into information development and its management, and gathers and disseminates results and resources through newsletters, the Web, seminars, two annual conferences, and research white papers. The CIDM facilitates the sharing of information among the most skilled managers in the information industry.

If you are interested in reading more in-depth articles, you should consider subscribing to the Best Practices newsletter at www.infomanagementcenter.com/masterindex.shtml.