Table of Contents Introduction Balancing Work and Personal Life Your Other Life Scheduling the Work Who Runs the Office? Getting Help Monitoring Progress Handling Problems Assuring Quality Conclusion

Monitoring Progress

The Importance of Communication

The best way to make sure you're meeting client expectations is to communicate often. If you have email, use it. If you don't, call. If you're local, drop in to the office once a week or so. Talk to other members of the project team — ask them what's changed recently. Boldly cross the political lines between marketing and R&D and talk to members of both groups, unless this will get you in trouble. If you don't know, take a chance.

Keep in constant contact with the person who hired you — the documentation department manager, the product manager, or the R&D manager. Let your contact know what you've been doing recently and how the project is going. Ask for feedback about your work and let everyone on the project team know that you're receptive to suggestions.

Setting Realistic Expectations

It's easier to meet or exceed client expectations if it's clear from the start what the project entails. List out the project deliverables and deadlines. Show samples of your work. Talk to the client about your ideas for the project. In some ways this comes back to good communication. But it also means making sure you, and your client, have a good understanding of the scope of the project.

Included in defining the scope is specifying what will NOT be part of the project. For example, you might document the hardware, but not the accompanying software; put this in writing.

Go to TopUpdating Schedules

Create a schedule at the start of the project, keep it current, and give the client a copy of your schedule each time you update it. Consult members of the project team before you do an update. For example, check with R&D to verify beta and release to manufacturing dates, then update your dates based on those.

Be clear about deadlines for both yourself and your client. Specify that all interim deadlines, including reviews, must be completed on time for the project to stay on schedule.

Communication with Subcontractors and Vendors

Don't leave subcontractors and vendors out of the loop. If your scheduled time to go to print looks like it will shift, give the printer plenty of advance notice. Subcontractors can be a challenge-you don't want to burden a sub with information that isn't relevant, but changing circumstances can suddenly make information relevant. Also, don't just hand work off to a sub and assume you're done. Check that sub's progress too, or require that the sub inform you on a regular basis.

Go to TopStatus Reports

For projects involving several team members in different locations, weekly status reports are a godsend. Keep them simple and straightforward; they are not for in-depth analysis of difficult problems, but just to keep everyone aware of the major points. Include a few headings such as: work accomplished, work yet to be done, estimated date of completion of tasks, and bottlenecks.