Re: Listserv Up

[Mike Rawlins <rawlins@metronet.com>]

Mark,

You raise some very good points.  I offer my suggestions below.

Mark CRAWFORD wrote:

> Mike,
>
> You indicated you would be sending out an expanded table of contents for the
> requirements document and would be seeking volunteers to work on and write
> sections of the document.  I share your urgency for getting a product to the
> other groups, and am confident we can meet your objective, but suggest we need
> to establish how we, as a group, are going to come to consensus on the content
> and structure of the document,

My experience has been that things work better if you can start from something and
rework it rather than collaboratively trying to create something, particularly when
working on a listserv.  To that end, I'll send out my suggestion for an expanded
table of contents.   I then propose we discuss it on the listserv, add/delete
sections until we're all happy.

> how we are going to do collaborative writing for
> all of the sections,

I suggest than individual people volunteer to write individual sections.  If more
than one person has interest in a section, then all those concerned may collaborate
as they see fit.  All sections would then be sent to the editor for collating and
editing for uniform style, etc.

> and how we as the group are going to agree on the final
> releasable product.
>

That is a somewhat more difficult problem, and I welcome suggestions.  What I've
done in other situations is to have people comment on the draft via the listserv.
The document editor has made changes of a stylistic nature, but comments relating
to substance are discussed on the listserv until all those commenting are agreed
(or at least there aren't any further objections).  The final document is then
voted on by the group.  This approach has worked well for more technical documents,
but I'm not sure about a requirements document.  However, it's the best I can think
of for now.

What do you all think?

>
>     Mark
> Mark Crawford
> Research Fellow
> ______
> LMI Logistics Management Institute
> 2000 Corporate Ridge, McLean, VA 22102-7805
> (703) 917-7177   Fax (703) 917-7518
> mcrawfor@lmi.org
> http://www.lmi.org
> "Opportunity is what you make of it"

--
Michael C. Rawlins, Rawlins EDI Consulting
http://www.metronet.com/~rawlins/