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Subject:"Request for services" forms From:"Geoff Hart (by way of \"Eric J. Ray\" <ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com>)" <ght -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA> Date:Wed, 19 Aug 1998 09:58:38 -0600
Tony Caruso wondered about what to put on a "request for services"
form. By curious coincidence, I recently talked our graphistes into a
complete redesign of their form. Here are the changes I persuaded
them to implement:
- Date desired and date required: These are rarely the same date, and
we have a good enough relationship with our clients that they're
willing to admit this and provide the correct dates. This is a
wonderful scheduling aid.
- The 5 W's: When? (see above) Where? (e.g., for presentations, will
it be in a conference room, or in a logging camp, thus, what type of
contrast, color schemes, equipment, etc. will be necessary; e.g.,
which report series will the graph go in, thus what are the size and
color limits?) What do you want us to do? (e.g., graph, slides,
overheads) Who is the end-user of what we're going to do? (e.g.,
executives just want summaries, end-users want details... and yes,
sometimes it's the opposite way around) Why are we doing it? (i.e.,
what goal do you hope to achieve, what message should the audience
take home). When the graphistes are serious about asking these
questions (not always), you wouldn't believe the difference this
makes in terms of the quality of the results.
- Signoffs: "Yes, you've got the basic notion right. If I change
my mind and ask for a diagram instead of a graph, I'll accept
the fact that this is a new request and will take much longer."
plus the ever popular "Yes, I've approved this. If there are any
errors left, it's not your fault."
The rest of the form is relatively simple book-keeping stuff that
varies from organisation to organisation; we track completion times,
for example, so we can detect problems (e.g., a particular author
likes to let the "proofs" sit on his desk for weeks, then suddenly
the deadline looms and its an emergency).
--Geoff Hart @8^{)}
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
"Men are from Earth. Women are from Earth. Deal with it."--Author unknown
