Planning and Organizing Technical Reports

Planning and Organizing Technical Reports Dr. Richard Johnson-Sheehan Professor of English, Purdue University

The four stages Technical documents often produced by many individuals To produce effective documents, individuals must work together as a team Teams go through four basic stages as they achieve their goal Planning technical documents around these stages helps create more effective deliverables These are the four stages of team formation: • Forming • Storming • Norming • Performing

1) Forming In this stage, the group: • Defines the project mission and objectives • Identifies project outcomes • Defines responsibilities • Constructs a timeline • Agrees on how conflicts will be resolved.

2) Storming In this stage, natural conflicts arise between team members. In order to emerge from the period of conflict, team members must: • Use the previously-agreed-to conflict resolution models • Meet with a plan and a purpose • Choose conflict mediators

3) Norming In this stage, as the team zeroes in on its goals, it starts behaving according to group- determined norms: • The team adjusts its objectives and outcomes. • Team members start fulfilling their responsibilities independently and communally. • Communication between team members is regular and productive.

4) Performing In this stage, the team is working together to improve their process and product: • Team members wholly adopt their team roles. • Individuals acknowledge and work with the strengths and weaknesses of their teammates. • Team members review objectives, complete tasks, assess outcomes, and refine processes individually and communally.

Technical Documents in Four Stages What does document planning look like when it considers the four stages of team formation? Consider the following situation…

The situation: A group consisting of two graduate assistants, a professor, and an engineer agree to write a report evaluating the current methods for cutting pavement. The document will need to include a review of current sawing techniques, an examination of pavement cutting research, and a recommendation on the techniques construction workers should use.

How should the group begin? First, they should define the project’s purpose by asking two questions: 1)What are we being asked to do? 2) What are we not being asked to do?

How should the group begin? The pavement research group answered the first two questions this way: Review current research and practice and recommend sawing techniques that are practical and effective. Research new techniques and develop new technologies for pavement cutting. 1)What are we being asked to do? 2) What are we not being asked to do?

Questions to answer: After the group determines what’s being asked of and what’s not being asked, they should ask the most important question: This question is most important because it will determine the scope and sequence of the group’s proceeding activities. The mission statement will provide cohesion for the group’s actions and serve as a guidepost as the group revises its goals later in the process. 3) What is our mission statement and what are our objectives?

Mission statement 3) What is our mission statement and what are our objectives? After considering their task, the pavement research group decided on the following for their mission statement: “This research group will recommend a practical and effective pavement sawing technique that will improve the safety and longevity of Indiana roads.”

Mission statement “This research group will recommend a practical and effective pavement sawing technique that will improve the safety and longevity of Indiana roads.” Notice that the main clause of the mission statement contains one verb. The research group will do many other things as they work toward achieving their goal, but, ultimately, they will recommenda sawing technique. Simplicity and unity in the mission statement will help the group stay focused as it composes the document.

Secondary objectives Once the group composes the mission statement, they can start aligning secondary objectives behind the primary one. The pavement research group set the following as Their secondary objectives: • Synthesize current research on pavement sawing. • Survey contractors to find which methods are most commonly practiced. • Compare the cost and safety benefits of different sawing techniques.

Questions to answer Once the mission statement and objectives have been determined, a team should ask the following questions: 4) What should our end products be? 5) Who are our clients? What are their values?

Questions to answer For the pavement research group, the client was the board that allocates money and determines road policy. The engineer and the professor had worked with board members in the past, so they knew the values and mores of the client. With the secondary objectives in place, answering the fourth question was easy. The group merely had to assign a deliverable and a deadline to each of the objectives… 5) Who are our clients? What are their values? 4) What should our end products be?

4) What are our end products?

Questions to answer: Once a team determines the scope and sequence of their tasks, they can consider the ancillary parameters of the project: 6) What are the physical, economic, political, and ethical factors that influence this project? How should we adjust to them?

Questions to answer: 6) What are the physical, economic, political, and ethical factors that influence this project? How should we adjust to them? In this case, the project was limited by time and funding, so the pavement research group had to narrow the scope of their inquiry due to time constraints. Instead of synthesizing all of the research on pavement cutting, they could only synthesize the most commonly-read journals and publications. Instead of surveying all the contractors, they could survey only the largest contractors.

Conflict! As the research group determined the scope and sequence of their task, they ran into some conflict. They debated how many publications and contractors they should consult as they gathered background information. They argued about which sawing techniques were practical and feasible, given current fiscal constraints. They even argued about some of the deadlines. This group used the following methods to resolve their big disagreements…

Conflict resolution All of these issues are essential to the successful completion of the project. How did the team decide to resolve each issue?

Conflict resolution Early in the process, the group decided on a heuristic for solving problems. Each person agreed to do what the group decided if there were a majority vote. If the vote were split, they would consult a third-party mediator to negotiate a dispute.

Taking action After the conflicts had been resolved, the team started adopting their team roles and accomplishing the tasks necessary to complete the document:

Taking action Quickly, the group realized that they would need to develop an ancillary plan to address the writing and revision responsibilities for creating the document.

Taking action The team decided to divide the document up by sections. Because they were writing a proposal, they knew their document needed to have five basic sections:

Taking action The group decided to divide the writing responsibilities along lines of expertise.

Taking action The professor was the research expert, so she wrote the research section.

Taking action The engineer would be responsible for their findings, so he wrote the recommen-dation.

Taking action The graduate students helped out where appropriate.

Taking action In this case, it was clear that the professor should be in charge of writing the research section and that the engineer should write the recommendation. However, sometimes the roles of expertise aren’t so clear-cut. Teams should ask these questions in order to determine what’s required for a role and how that matches up with team member strengths…

Taking action Does this role require people-oriented skills? • In other words, does the role require someone who can keep track of objectives, questions, and decisions and communicate that information to team members? • Should the person in this role be able to network with resources and people outside the team in order to bring in new information and fresh perspectives?

Taking action Does this role require action-oriented skills? • In other words, does the role require someone who keeps the team accountable for what’s been accomplished? • Does the role require a person who is good at turning abstract objectives into real actions? • Does the team need a detail-oriented person who monitors the overall quality of the project?

Taking action Does this role require cerebral skills? • Does the team need someone who critiques decisions and reasoning? • Does the team need an innovative thinker who provides big solutions? • Does the team need a subject-matter specialist whose expertise currently is not present in the group?

Improving performance After the rough draft of the document was complete, the team decided to revise it by exchanging sections and providing in-team feedback. Initially, this system improved the document, but, at a team meeting, one of the graduate students said they felt that the document still needed some work. The team brainstormed ways to improve the quality of the document; Frances, the engineer, said she knew a technical writing consultant. She offered to contact the consultant on behalf of the team.

Improving performance In order to improve the document, the team had begun refining the process by which they produced the recommendation report. Typically, improvement of performance happens in a four stage cycle: Complete Tasks Assess Outcomes Review Objectives Refine Process

Improving performance The team completed the recommendation report, assessed their product, and refined the process by which they produced the report, keeping in mind the objectives and purpose of their activity. Complete Tasks Assess Outcomes Review Objectives Refine Process

Keys to document success • Define your mission statement and objectives • Assign deliverables and deadlines • Determine your methods for conflict resolution • Match personal strengths/expertise and team roles • Refine your process by assessing outcomes, changing procedures, reviewing objectives, and completing tasks

For More Information Contact the Purdue Writing Lab: Call: 765-494-3723 OWL Email Tutors: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/contact/owlmailtutors On the web: http://owl.english.purdue.edu

Adapted by Joshua Prenosil and Allen Brizee from Technical Communication Today by Dr. Richard Johnson-Sheehan

Planning and Organizing Technical Reports