Set the Proposed Schedule

Setting the proposed schedule involves these steps:

1. Estimating the size of the project
2. Estimating the total length (in number of work days) needed to complete the project
3. Establishing intermediate deadlines.

Estimating the Size of the Project

The information design that you developed in Phase Four should be complete enough that you can accurately estimate, within 20 percent, the total size of the information product.

To get a rough estimate of the size of the completed communication product, add up the number of:

• Pages if you are developing a printed communication product
• Screens if you are developing an online communication product
• Finished minutes (if you are preparing an audiotape or video tape)

Then, add a fudge factor to determine the total size of the project:

For example:

1. Suppose that, as a result of your information design, a user’s guide will be 156 pages.
2. You assess that the subject matter is somewhat stable.
3. Add a 30 percent fudge factor:

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Estimating the Total Length (in Work Days) of the Project

Determine the total number of work days needed for the project.

You can compute this number in one of two ways.

When You Set the Final Deadline. This is the ideal situation, in which you establish the final deadline for the project based on the amount of time needed to complete the project. To compute the total number of work days needed using this method, you use the appropriate estimating formula based on the medium you are using. For example, if you are preparing a printed manual, you would use the formula for estimating the development time for print.

The fundamental concept underlying each of these estimating formulas is the concept of "finished" work. A finished page represents all of the work involved in preparing the page, including review time, management time, editing time, and preparation of graphics--not just the technical writer's time.

Because work rates vary widely among organizations and among types of projects, I cannot offer a definite rate for the number of hours needed to complete a finished page, finished topic, or finished minute. As a rule of thumb, I suggest the following estimates. Your time will almost certainly vary, but until you have experience, these estimates will provide you some realistic means of measurement:

Finished pages: 1 every 4-6 hours

Finished screens: 1 every 3-5 hours

Using this formula to estimate the total time needed to develop the user's guide mentioned earlier:

When Your Client Has an Inflexible Final Deadline: Often, when clients approach you to develop a communication product, they have an inflexible final deadline when they need for you to have the finished product available. In such instances, the firm deadline must be the final deadline.

All the same, compute the total time needed to complete the project as you would using the other method. Although you might not have all of this time available to prepare your communication product, you might be able to use this estimate to request that additional people work on the project or that you purchase additional computer software and hardware.

For example, suppose that the client needs the user's guide just described in 29 weeks, even though you have estimated that the project needs 32. By making the client aware that you have removed 3.4 weeks from the schedule (about 12 percent of the total time of the project), you might need 12 percent or more of another resource to make up for the lost time. (Note that the addition of a person for the rest of the time is not an even exchange. A person might be available to fill in for the 12 percent of the time, but they also need to be trained and kept informed about the project, which adds to the time needed.)

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Establishing Intermediate Deadlines

The calculation you just made indicated the total time needed to develop the communication product. This time includes not only the time needed for drafting the information product, but also for copying and distributing review drafts, producing the communication product, and duplicating it. The time includes not just your time, but also that client, subject matter experts, and others who review the draft communication product, the editor, production staff, and others.

Your next challenge is to identify the intermediate deadlines so that each person has sufficient time to do their job. These intermediate deadlines are called milestones.

The eleven phases in the process that you read about earlier for developing a communication product represent most of the milestones; but additional milestones are included because they alert various people who play a role in the process of developing technical communication products when their assistance is needed:

This number of milestones is longer than the number listed in this book. The list presented here has additional phases for reviewing each intermediate work product in the planning phase with clients. This list also has separate phases for preparing and reviewing the second and third drafts; the discussion in this book combines all of the discussions of reviews into one chapter and revisions into another. Note, however, that this list does not contain the phase for maintaining the communication product, because that milestone is an ongoing task that occurs after the deadline.

The amount of time assigned to each step is a percentage of time of the total project (Hackos, 1994). To assign intermediate deadlines, then, you would divide the time between now and the final deadline into 4 main chunks, each with these percentages:

Assuming that we have 32.4 weeks to design and develop the user's guide mentioned earlier, we would assign time as follows:

Next, you assign specific dates to each activity. That is mostly a straightforward activity. But when assigning deadlines for reviews, make sure you leave sufficient time to copy the draft (at least 2 days, even with quick copy services) and send it to reviewers (at least another 2 days, even with express mail) and for reviewers to return the draft to you (at least another 2 days).

Even if you are planning to conduct reviews with online copies (called an electronic review), leave at least 1 day at each end of the review for distribution. Although networks often deliver information the moment you transmit it, they sometimes "clog up" and do not deliver your files to the intended receiver for several hours or days.

The bulk of the time needed for production is needed for producing the communication product, which also includes time needed for duplicating it. The time needed for duplication varies, but is fixed by the printer or, for diskettes and CDs, by the duplication house. On shorter jobs, the time needed for duplication will be longer than 10 percent of the total job and this schedule will vary.

Finally, notice that there's a fair amount of flexibility in assigning dates; the estimating formulas are just that--for estimating.

Assuming that the start date is February 1:

After preparing the schedule, you might adjust dates to accommodate your needs. For example, you might change the deadline for second draft because you have vacation time scheduled in June.

Last, you review the proposed schedule with your client. Because your schedule depends on your client completing reviews at the scheduled time, ask the client for a signed commitment to completing all reviews on schedule. If the client does not meet a scheduled review date, make sure that you get a written commitment that you have the right to delay final completion of the project one work day for each work day the reviews are delayed.

Once you have a committed schedule, publish it and make reviewers, editors, and others on the project team aware well in advance when you need their services. Occasionally remind them (people forget otherwise) so that you have the assistance you eed, at the time you need it.

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Related Resource: Work sheet for planning a schedule

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(c) Copyright. 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002. Saul Carliner. All rights reserved.