PMP, IPR, ABCD...omg

Well today was the WSR again...I let Erinn deal with most of that (and whine to me periodically throughout the day)...and let me tell you, I did not miss it. Instead I tried to track down the status of several other documents I've been working on. I was assigned the PMP a few weeks ago. The PMP is the Project Management Plan, which is kind of a glorified mission statement that lays out specifics of the project. The document was a bit, shall we say, scattered, when it was handed to me but I dove in having no idea what I was supposed to do with it. I grabbed a legal pad and wrote two or three pages of questions and brief notes on ideas I had for a direction to take the document. Through some research I dug up the Peer Review Checklist for a Project Management Plan for NG and compared it to the existing document; I was sad. But it gave me a place to start and people to email. Through my emails I got mixed responses on how to approach the document: just format the document to our template; just do a standard edit; update the content; overhaul it; rework this section; or a combination of those. My general sense was we did not have the standard in place from which the PMP derives from. While I was proud of myself for finding this all out, I was frustrated at the lack of documentation standards. Why isn't everyone as anal as me? Needless to say, the PMP got put on hold because HR came for a visit and corporate/gov't people came in the following week.

So today I spent some time trying to track down my manager to see if we were still pursuing the document. It is a very important document and it is a living document, meaning needs to be updated periodically. Perhaps if a good copy could be put together updating it wouldn't be such a daunting task.

The Wizzer

The WSR (affectionately dubbed the Wizzzzer by my fellow new Tech Writer at Northrop) is one of the banes and reasons for my (early) existence. The Weekly Status Report is exactly as it sounds. It is a weekly update of what has been accomplished in the project from each team.

Now, one would think because this document is put out weekly it would not be hard to meet deadline; unfortunately, this is not the case. One would also think because it is a weekly document that not much progress would be made and the information would remain pretty consistent, making a quick update--well, quick. Oh, no no. This has been a big lesson for me in the few weeks I've been working at Northrop. No one ever has any time. The WSR is due at the same time each week and is put out in the same format and has the same requirements. But each week it comes in late. It comes in formats that are entirely random, for example a manager will format his text all in a table and we don't use tables in most sections of this document. It sets the TW team more time to reformat a chunk of text not only for the consistency of the document, but also trying to maintain the meaning. If an author could just stick to the weekly format life would be so much easier!

I understand this is how the "working world" works. Everyone is busy and does their own thing but that doesn't make it any less frustrating. This document should be very easy to put together and to deliver. The WSR is word document that basically needs status updates copied and pasted in with a quick edit for grammar, etc.

I think this one may be a life lesson in patience.

Deliverables

The TW Team (Tech Writing) is responsible for creating and maintaining what the company calls "deliverables." These are the documents that go out to the customer to show what the project has accomplished over a certain period of time or relating to a certain topic. In my time with Northrop I have worked on several deliverables and forms of documentation. Each is handled in a different way.

• Weekly Status Report (WSR)
  
• Interim Project Report (IPR)
  
• Trends and Performance Report
  
• Detailed Design Document (DDD)
  
• Style Guide
• Project Management Plan (PMP)
  

I have been exploring Microsoft 2007 in an effort to regain my quick formatting skills. Because some of these documents are delivered on a regular basis the only work they need is insertion into a template, some quick formatting and a read through for errors. Others need created from scratch, which require not only online research (both Inter- and Intra- net) but research with members of the company.

I take heavy advantage of Microsoft Word and Powerpoint as well as my office email, Outlook in order to work on documents. I've found different approaches work for different types of documents. In further posts I will detail the steps I use in the above documents.

The Job

I'm working full-time. I am exposed to and a part of a real corporate culture. At the end of the day I'm tired and I have dealt with difficult people, slow computers, a freezing office building, tons of paper and lots of coffee just like the rest of the world.

My first two weeks on the job I did a lot of exploring my computers. I was trying to learn how things worked at the company. Whitney, my team lead, gave me a few background documents on the project as well as an overview of the documentation process and the Project Management Plan so that I could begin to familiarize myself with what was going on.

Essentially I work on a Production Delivery team. This consists of Technical Writers/Editors, Quality Assurance and Configuration Management. These people are in charge of creating, maintaining, verifying and validating all deliverables to the customer. Deliverables are the documents showing work that has been done of the project. On average there are five deliverables that go out each week. Some deliverables require a few simple changes, such as the date and a logo while others require entire sections reworked and new information added.

Never in my life have I been so thankful for my ability to sit quietly and read long (and sometimes boring) texts and be able to pick out important information! I am going through an adjustment and learning period, trying to move quickly through background materials and get a feel for things so I can be a more competent employee.

Army ABIS

Well, I've been working at Northrop Grumman IT for 2 weeks now in Fairmont, WV. I am working on a Department of Defense contract with the Army called ABIS, which stands for Automated Biometrics Identification System. I am learning a lot and trying to pick up as much as I can as quickly as possible.