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Journals by EmailAt the moment, I am a member of three project teams in active development. I hear about organizations with projects so big that it takes multiple writers to produce a documentation set for a single project. The projects I work on have needs that are small enough that I can juggle more than one at a time, and there are advantages and disadvantages to this situation.
Positive: Options Keep Me Engaged
When I was interviewed for this job, the interviewer asked me what I do to keep engaged in what I’m working on. I said that if I’m working on multiple things, I switch between them so that the variety keeps me interested. That is still the case. If I go for a long enough stretch on one set of help files or tutorials, I spend some time on a different project. Turning my attention to a different project helps remove mundanity.
Negative: Switching Between Tasks Reduces Efficiency
If I don’t manage my time well, I can waste a lot of time switching among multiple tasks in the same day. Any time I decide to go from task A to task B or especially from project A to project B, time is lost as my brain switches gears. Sometimes my mind is still mulling over things I was thinking about regarding project A when I need to focus on project B. I struggle to completely turn my attention to the second project or task at times. One of my performance goals for this year relates to this issue.
Positive: Cross-Project Knowledge
The applications I work on are related and share data as they assist the business process. This position has allowed me a bigger picture of how these apps work together. Recently, a tester who sits near me asked someone else a question having to do with a system she doesn’t work on, and afterward, she said to me, “I guess I could have asked you that question!” I can be a resource for each team when it comes to knowing about the functionality of the other systems.
Negative: Trying to Keep Up
Multiple projects means multiple schedules and requirement sets to keep up on. I’ve actually fallen into a reactive state, where we’re a couple of iterations into a development cycle before I get to a point where I can take a look at the development tasks for the cycle and decide how the documentation needs to change. Another of my goals relates to doing better here.
It also leads to a bit of stress when I have multiple deadlines coming up and get into a little frenzy to meet them.
Positive: Opportunities to Branch Out
Not every project has the same user base, so documentation needs are different between projects. This allows me to try different things rather than providing a cookie-cutter set of deliverables.
Negative: Keeping Different Team Processes Straight
Though our development teams work in a largely Agile process, they still have different ways of attending to details. Program managers, dev leads, and test leads all have different preferences, so each team adapts. Sometimes I get a little mixed up when it comes to which team does what.
Positive: Getting to Know More People
I have gotten to know a lot more people than I would if I were working on a single project. When we have a staff meeting involving these and other teams, I know a large number of people there. I work with a lot of great people, and each team has its own personality. I also meet more of our users.
Positive: Sharing in Successes
I like helping multiple projects succeed. Of course, I also like taking part in the celebrations. Helping projects get out the door with appropriate user assistance is a great accomplishment. I have worked in the bakery with my fingers in multiple pies, and I put in my ingredient that added to the pies’ flavor.
It’s no accident that there are more positives than negatives in this situation, though I’m sure I haven’t given an exhaustive list. I like working on multiple projects, but there are things that I struggle with. Fortunately, most of them are things that I can personally adapt to in order to perform better.
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