Technical Communication

Sorting with Sound

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ August 23, 2010 ⋅ Post a comment

via Geek.com – yes, I subscribe to stuff like this in my RSS reader … I thought this was interesting on two levels … The Engineering student within appreciates the differences in sorting techniques (although I think I could speed up that bubble sort …) I also think these videos provide a simple illustration of [...]

Managing Change: Pick Something, and Do It Well

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ February 14, 2010 ⋅ 2 comments

This is the first in an series of posts on Managing Change … look for more over the course of the next few weeks … A common way of expressing the holistic nature of a project is to talk about “People, Process, and Technology”. I’m not sure who came up with this little gem, or [...]

Training and Learning: A Different POV

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ August 18, 2009 ⋅ One comment

The topic was training users for an upcoming project rollout, and the debate (as always) roamed back and forth between “traditional” (classroom training, scripts & workbooks) versus “experiential”, pairing existing users with their counterparts (who are new to the system), walking through the basics (screen navigation, terminology, and step-by-step instructions for the most common required [...]

I Think I’m Learning SAPanese …

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ November 23, 2008 ⋅ One comment

Spent time at an industry conference last week (ain’t Boston great!), and heard the term SAPanese – that special language SAP users learn when immersed in worlds of Walldorf and their ubiquitous software. It’s not unique to SAP – lots of software companies develop their own vocabulary. Heck, IT “geeks” are famous for it – [...]

A Plea for Empathetic Communication

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ November 17, 2008 ⋅ One comment

It’s impossible to over-communicate Sounds a bit strong, but if you think through your real-world experiences, this shouldn’t surprise anyone. No matter how hard you try, your message will be missed by someone … Problem: It’s all their fault! Rely on Web 2.0, and … … they won’t subscribe to the RSS feed; they don’t [...]

Don’t Accept Snap Answers Too Quickly

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ July 6, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

A few years ago, I was working on an interface project, and wanted to have the ERP system send copies of any and all transactions that have changed over the past few days. I’ve done this before on other platforms, so I asked the lead developer what I thought was a no-brainer request: Do the [...]

More On Executives (are Smarter than You Think; the 5 Biggest Misconceptions)

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ June 13, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

A recent post got a surprising amount of feedback – at least, different feedback than my other stuff. No flames, just folks agreeing with the ideas and wanting to engage in more direct conversation (phone calls, as opposed to blog comments or email – interesting …) I’ve noted that people like to second-guess and/or heap [...]

Politically Correct Euphemisms in IT – Translated!

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ May 26, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

I recently attended a professional seminar, and noticed a propensity for politically correct euphemisms to describe life in corporate IT. This was a typical group of IT professionals, representing a variety of companies – small and large, public and private. As with most group meetings, we started with a trip around the table; quick introductions, [...]

Success, Failure, and Insights after 12 Months of Internal Web 2.0

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ March 10, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

Different areas of our IT department are using internal blogs, wikis, and collaboration spaces, with varying degrees of participation, readership, and success. Some observations: Blogging is Easy … The blogs and wiki(s) have effectively removed the hassles of capturing and distributing information quickly. One important early decision was to not implement an editorial approval process [...]

Search as the Killer KM App, and Good Writers will Rule the World

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ November 5, 2006 ⋅ 2 comments

I’ve been involved in a series of projects where good ol’ Knowledge Management (KM), that buzzword from the 90′s, is wandering it’s way back into our conscious thought. Did scope creep blow the project schedule? No, it was the death-march through the Requirements Phase Since we’re automating processes that were never documented, we have to [...]