A total of 86 applications were filed for the 2006 US Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Awards. This is an increase over last year’s 64 applications.
This year the new nonprofit category has 10 applications. There are also:
The QPI SIG has published extensive quotes on the subject of quality.
The QPI SIG published a bibliography by Don Lenk on the subject of quality through 2004. Now the QPI SIG posts short bibliographies and listings in the “Resources” category continually.
The SIG has a list of related organizations, presently on our static site. We are also adding posts in the category of Related Organizations.
The QPI SIG has a Conferences and courses page with ongoing educational opportunities listed and an archival listing of events. If you wish to announce a quality-related event, please send the information to the SIG Manager (contact information). Please provide the month, day, and year; name of the event; location; and URL for more information in that order.
The Online SIG has an extensive events calendar related to all areas of technical communication and is posting more events on http://stc-on.org/online. If you wish to announce a technical communication event, please post there.
by Amy S. Friend BB, CQM, Senior Member Rochester Chapter STC
This is part 2 of a series: Revel in Your Discomfort: Living With Change. An earlier version of these articles was published in the Proof Sheet newsletter of the Rochester Chapter of STC, beginning in November, 1996.
In Part 1 I wrote about Tannenbaum’s Change Continuum. Robert Tannenbaum explains that every change is perceived as either superficial, incremental, continuous, or transformational. Two different people may perceive (or classify) the same change differently depending on their experience, gender, ethnic background, or other personal history. How we experience change has more to do with us than with the change. This month’s article will focus more on the personal side of change. (more…)
Recently STC members have informally recommended the following resources.
The Art of Constructive Confrontation by Hoover and DiSilvestro
(http://www.constructiveconfrontation.com/)
The Fast Forward MBA in Project Management by Eric Verzuh
Fundamentals of Project Management by James P. Lewis
A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge 3rd ed., published by the Project Management Institute (PMI)
Managing Information Technology Projects by Dick Billows GCA (http://www.4PM.com)
Managing Your Documentation Projects by JoAnn Hackos
Project Management Jump Start by Kim Heldman
Project Management Memory Jogger from GOAL QPC
The Project Office by Thomas R. Block and J. Davidson Frame
In the current posted issue of the The Rockley Bulletin, Ann Rockley reviews Document Engineering: Analyzing and Designing Documents for Business Informatics and Web Services (ISBN-10:0-262-07261-0; The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts), by Robert Glushko and Tim McGrath. The summary states that the authors “explore the document as an interface to business and provide a common sense approach to modeling both documents and services for information exchange.
“Their message is clear: To succeed in the 21st century global economy, companies need to ‘fundamentally rethink what they do and how they do it.’ And what better place to start than with the document?”"
Visit the The Rockley Bulletin to read the whole article.
There is a customer satisfaction survey for documentation online at GE Industrial. The survey is available in seven languages and addresses both software and hardware manuals.
The May issue of STC’s Intercom magazine includes the Quest for Quality column, which addresses how to build a customer satisfaction measurement survey. The example is an information product.
IBM (formerly Rational) RequisitePro is a powerful tool for writing software requirements.
This tool is most effective when you are managing hundreds of requirements. Authors write with MS Word, and the requirements become part of a database which provides flexibility in retrieval and reporting.
stpBA Storyboarding integrates requirements management with diagramming of task flows and specifications. It can be used as a standalone tool, or integrated with IBM RequisitePro.
Omnigroup has a suite of tools for the Macintosh. OmniOutliner is the application for writing requirements, and it integrates with OmniGraffle, a popular visualization tool.
The Confluence Wiki is being used for collaborative work, including writing requirements.
March 1-2, 2007. Essentials for Excellence: 19th Annual Quality Management Conference. Adam’s Mark Hotel, Dallas, Texas.
The conference will have tracks for sectors such as healthcare, government, and nonprofit organizations. Pre- and post-conference courses will provide basic introductory quality concepts as well as intermediate and advanced courses, such as Lean and Six Sigma.
On June 26, 2006, the Times of Oman reported on a recent workshop that was held on quality documentation to examine developing, documenting and managing policies, and procedural manuals and guidelines. (more…)
The STC website has an RSS feed, and if you subscribe you’ll receive the latest news continually. There are instructions for using an RSS reader in the Online SIG newsletter.
STC President Paula Berger sends a message to all members once a month with a full report on Board and Society activities. Watch for Paula’s message, which is also posted on the STC website.
Sharon Lynn and Elizabeth McQueen have been working on plans for QPI SIG activities at the 2007 STC annual conference. There was some response to the call for participation in a progression, so we will be collaborating with some other SIGs to have quality-related presentations in more than one progression.
The QPI SIG continues to gain members. The list is quiet, and so are the Business process and Standards forums on the STC Forum. If you are a member, I hope you will post to the list or on the forum, or write to me, and let us know what you would like to learn and experience as a member of the Quality and Process Improvement SIG of STC.
The Standards forum on the STC Forum is updated continually by the QPI SIG, and attracts posts from members who are experts on standards. Please visit the forum, and post information that you have available to share.
Please welcome our 23 new members who joined in July. The QPI SIG now has 925 members. There are 14,686 members in STC.
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