Editing Metrics Outline of 5/3/10 Presentation

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1 Editing Metrics Outline of 5/3/10 Presentation About Rockwell Automation Industrial components Annual sales Number of employees Our Technical Communication Group Number of Developers in our division What we write How many publications we currently support Number of Editors Move to Topic-oriented Writing Do more with less - continually growing product lines with fewer personnel Be topic-oriented instead of publication-oriented Support reuse across project lines Leverage our information as a strategic intellectual asset Cross-department Task Forces to Ensure Buy-in Entire department was changing, not just the editing function Created multiple task forces to complete tasks needed to write in a topic-oriented manner State of Editing Before Formal Editing Role No defined editing process Outdated style guide Defined legal boilerplate process/usage Little consistency between product lines Design a Consistent Editing Process Update style guide to support structured authoring and content reuse Develop and implement an editing workflow Use a review database for feedback Edit in one tool Use Editors checklist for consistency

2 2 Editing Metrics Editors Checklist Promotes consistent edits Ensures that each Editor checks for the same items on each review Developers can use before sending for review Allows for the most reusability Editing for Multiple Campuses To promote unity, all writers use the same style guide, editing workflow, review database, and get feedback from the Editors in the same manner Lone writers are as much a part of the process as any other writer Levels of Edit and Time Estimates Light edit Medium edit Full edit Determine what level to edit each document How We Created Our Levels of Edit and Time Estimates Established three levels Borrowed from JPL and Judith Tarutz Time estimates from Jean Hollis Weber, whose work in this area borrows from JoAnn Hackos and Carolyn Rude Manage Project Assignments Assign the project based on our availability and current projects Use to define which Editor takes which document Don t use a specific rotation Turn-around time: 5 business days Project Tracking Spreadsheet Original format is Excel spreadsheet Allowed us to see all editing projects and gather editing metrics Tracking Our Metrics 80% of our Editing projects are installation instructions, release notes, and user manuals Actual time to edit met our estimates Rolled these Editing metrics into the Developers metrics Lisa Adair - Rockwell Automation, Inc. - lmadair@ra.rockwell.com

3 Editing Metrics 3 Move to SharePoint Site Offers collaboration and document management by means of web portals Provides a centralized repository for shared documents Browser-based management and administration SharePoint Tracking Tool Allows us to use one tool to track metrics for Developers and Editors Replaces multiple department-level spreadsheets Access for multiple users Track work for all roles, including team leaders, team members, etc. Tracking Tool Features Data consistency by using pull-down menus, radio buttons, and pop-up calendars Notes field allows you to call attention to issues Required fields identified with an asterisk when in the edit view All users can change any record Metrics Editors Track Fields that start with ED are for Editors only Track page count of publication versus page count edited Track date edit requested versus date edit returned Track level of edit planned versus actual edit given Track whether the native file was stored in Docman Track the review number (first, final, or only) Use Metrics to Your Advantage Prove your estimates - meeting deadlines, levels of edit performed, page counts edited Project how Developers and Editors will be loaded - can determine who can start a project and when Plan for future projects, based on documented history Estimating with Hours/Page and Publication Type Editing time varies less than writing time Editing time is less dependent upon the publication type In estimating, we use the average time for editing, but need to use a writing estimate based on the publication type Lisa Adair - Rockwell Automation, Inc. - lmadair@ra.rockwell.com 2010

4 4 Editing Metrics Estimating with New versus Revised Publications Editing time varies less than writing time In estimating, we use the average time for editing, but need to use a a writing estimate based on whether the publication is new or revised Future Projects Can view future workload for contributors and business units Views are linked to the live data in the project list These views are enabled by Excel pivot tables Pivot tables are a data summarization tool Pivot tables sort, count, add, and average data stored in one table and create a second table displaying the summarized data Reports can be refreshed to reflect recent changes View of Future Workload Evaluate the graph of projected work per month Can determine when work should be assigned/scheduled based on other completion dates Archived Project Lists From FY06 through FY09, moved about 1350 records to the completed projects list Now have metrics for about 4000 completed project records Completed projects are stored in a list that s almost identical to the project list and time tracking tool Hours per Page Metrics To determine the hours per page metric, use data from these fields in the time tracking tool: actual hours to date, page count, status, new or revision, and role Hours per Publication Type To determine the hours per publication type metric, use data from these fields in the time tracking tool: actual hours to date, status, role, new or revision, and deliverable type Average Duration by Publication Type and Business Unit Shows average number of days To determine the average duration by publication type and business unit, use data from these fields in the time tracking tool: actual start date, actual delivery date, status, new or revision, role, deliverable type, and business unit Lisa Adair - Rockwell Automation, Inc. - lmadair@ra.rockwell.com

5 Editing Metrics 5 Future Trends Can create metrics for productivity Reports can track metrics for time spent on department teams or maintenance for Docman and RRDonnelly printing Lisa Adair - Rockwell Automation, Inc. - lmadair@ra.rockwell.com 2010