TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
When faced with listing the times for planning, tracking, or reporting
projects, I've used terms like:
developer or development hours
testing or tester hours
writing or writer hours
editing or editor hours
project manager hours
team lead hours
software support hours
technical support hours
These terms focus on the skill required and not on the person doing the
task. The whole exercise is, after all, one of keeping track of time
values, not of who in particular is doing the job. And I'm not going to
get into other issues like chair(man/person/nothing). :-)
The term man-month is kind of cemented firmly into the software
development business by the excellent book, The Mythical Man-Month:
Essays in Software Engineering, by Frederick P. Brooks, Jr,; an IBM
software project manager on one of their major operating systems. The
book was published in 1975, but is surprisingly accurate in its
depiction of the problems with most software development
projects--documentation projets too. :-)
art
========================================================
Art Elser
Technical Editor, U S WEST
(303)624-0370
aelser -at- uswest -dot- com
========================================================
