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At our status meeting this morning, our manager gave us an updated list
of documentation requests. Currently, the six of us are working on a
total of 22 projects; today's new list had 71 *new* requests on it.
The challenge: determine the priority of and writer for each request.
Help!! How do you assign priorities to writing projects and how do you
determine (or who determines) which writing projects you "get?" Some
requests are small (<30 hours), some are large (30+ hours). Some have
a deadline *and* a dedicated SME; some have one or the other. Every
customer seems to believe its project is *your highest priority,* but is
there any way to avoid playing some variation of management poker?
Customer: Well, my manager moved the release date to two weeks
from now, so my project leader says you've got one week to finish
Document A, not four weeks.
Writer: I'll see your manager and project leader, and I'll raise
you to my manager, her manager, and a director who just decided to
put Document A on hold so I can devote all of my time to Document
B, which was taken *off* hold last week and must go to the printer
before the end of the month.
Is anybody else's writing group facing project overload? How are you
dealing with it?
Thanks a lot (in advance) for any ideas or suggestions.
