"I have a chapter on estimating projects in my book. It's chapter 5, "Estimating, tracking, and managing tech writing projects," in Technical Writing Management: A Practical Guide.
My main point there is that instead of using…"
Technical Writing World
The social network for technical communicators
Thomas Mauser's Discussions
Estimating a Writing Project
Started this discussion. Last reply by Steve Schwarzman Feb 29. 11 Replies 3 Likes
On a given technical communications project that involves the creation of a user manual or documentation, how does one estimate effort? Is there a standard level of effort (e.g., 3-5 hours per page?)…Continue
Thomas Mauser's Page
Latest Activity
Milan Davidović replied to Thomas Mauser's discussion Estimating a Writing Project"When you eventually do provide your estimate, it may be helpful to make explicit any key assumptions (i.e. important items that you can't measure directly) on which you've based it."
Melanie Blank replied to Thomas Mauser's discussion Estimating a Writing Project"Thanks, Julio - helpful. :)"
Julio Vazquez replied to Thomas Mauser's discussion Estimating a Writing Project"There are definitely many variable, Tom and a lot depends on the type of information you're writing. Help information that is just detailing values for options in a UI doesn't take as much time as writing how to accomplish a task with the…"
Daniel Archer replied to Thomas Mauser's discussion Estimating a Writing Project"Exactly. For me, it's all about the UI - how fast will it be ready and how many half-baked iterations of the document are going to be required by the project schedule / client before the UI is really ready? I spend 25-50% of my time making…"
Melanie Blank replied to Thomas Mauser's discussion Estimating a Writing Project"Jenny - this is helpful, too - thanks,
Melanie"
Melanie Blank replied to Thomas Mauser's discussion Estimating a Writing Project"Tom - this is a question I have struggled with, and obviously I'm not alone. Mark brings up some excellent points - I always benefit from his comments. I'm also thinking of online help projects, where the "per page"…"
Thomas Mauser replied to Thomas Mauser's discussion Estimating a Writing Project"Hello Jenny,
Thank you very much for your reply and for providing me with the link to a writing project estimates resource!
Best regards,
Tom Mauser
"
Thomas Mauser replied to Thomas Mauser's discussion Estimating a Writing Project"Hello Mark,
Thank you very much for replying to my inquiry and for providing me with your key factors that impact estimate for writing projects - it's greatly appreciated!!
Best regards,
Tom Mauser"
Jenny Watson replied to Thomas Mauser's discussion Estimating a Writing Project"Hi Tom
I've found this a useful resource as a starting point for estimating projects - http://www.writingassist.com/pdfs/WAI_EstimatingWritingProjects_V4_1_2011.pdf
It was something I stumbled across a few years ago when I was looking for…"
Mark Baker replied to Thomas Mauser's discussion Estimating a Writing Project"Hi Tom,
It definitely varies. There are averages that may provide rough guidance over a sufficiently large project or a number of projects, but for a single project those averages may be useless. Indeed, an organization's internal metrics based…"
Thomas Mauser posted a discussionEstimating a Writing Project
On a given technical communications project that involves the creation of a user manual or documentation, how does one estimate effort? Is there a standard level of effort (e.g., 3-5 hours per page?) that is used as a rule of thumb or does it vary depending on the size and complexity of the writing project? Appreciate hearing from anyone who has experience estimating technical communications projects. Tom Mauser, Toronto, Ontario, Canada See More
Profile Information
- How did you hear about TWW?
- Searching the Internet for technical writing groups.
Comment Wall
- No comments yet!
© 2012 Created by Arnold Burian.
