Christine Robinson

57970

Technical Writer

Dec 01, 2002

Overall Responsibilities

Individual Goals

E+

Am on RN PIT to improve RNEs.

In Progress

E

Getting Supported Hardware ported over to Feature Navigator or Release Note
Generator.

An intermediary step was to change the release note boilerplate to point to parent release notes for hardware and other information. This eliminate opportunities for errors by putting information in a central location.

In Progress

E

Implement task analysis method; train others

Although not directly involved in the development. Was one of the first people to use it as an information gathering tool. Sold the method to the Aesop team.

Met

E

Took on Lambretta project under challenging circumstances

Took over a large writing project with lead writer out on sick leave. Delivered two releases and reorganized 450 pages of documents in two month´s time. Worked well with DE team and writer new to project. What could have been a messy transition was smooth. Documents were delivered and Lambretta team was happy.

Met

E+

Manager Evaluation:
Chris delivered another solid year of trimming the fat, getting folks organized, taking names, and tackling complex technology.

In keeping with last year s primary goal and her strong penchant for early intervention, Chris spearheaded getting specials into PDS with 12.2(11)YT and 12.2(8)YN, which served as models for specials to follow. For all of the features she wrote about, she also exhorted project teams until PDS forms were perfect -- no mean task since some of her projects consisted of umbrella features with embedded umbrella features.

To her credit, Chris sees no distinction between her job and someone else' s, as long as her efforts accomplish what's best for Cisco. To this end she gained an in-depth understanding of engineering and Release Ops tools, as John Rider expresses in the following statement. "Chris does an excellent job of watching out for customers best interest in how we document support for the platforms. She understands the complexity of how the different tools interact with each other. She knows that in order to continue to serve our customers in the best possible way, we as a company need to evolve. She knows that some legacy ways of doing business just don t cut it anymore and we need
to change that. She s one of a "few" doc writers that contacts me and makes sure that all of the features/releases she owns are accounted for between the docs and how they appear in Feature Navigator."

Chris efforts on behalf of FN and the enforcement of PDS forms are reflected in this unsolicited mail from another manager, Chris, you are absolutely correct. GREAT news to hear that you continue to evangelize this issue with various product teams and provide training to boot! I know training and working with so many different teams is time consuming, but this will help us in the long run. Hats off to your efforts and John´s efforts. Thanks for sharing this information. We´ll look forward to the updates. Kat.

Chris is noted for other productivity improvements. In response to a recent CEC article that boasts, "Cisco Internet Initiative Saves $25 Million -- and Countless Trees," Julie Royal said, "Thanks to everyone on this alias and in the RN Forum who worked on this effort, and a special thanks to Terri Rubin and Chris Robinson for their work on the in-box pointer doc that replaced the hard copy RNs..." One of the CAPs that Chris received this year resulted from her work with the Lambretta team. Not only did she take over this in-process project, but she shifted the team away from some inefficient practices. For example, the team s accustomed MO was to expect writers to document all possible features at beta -- and wait for marketing and DE to decide if the feature was marketed in or committed to a release. Chris solution is to have writers work from a prioritized list of features, which is kept in EDCS (see EDCS-211500, which is currently at 77 line items).

Busy as she is, Chris is always one of the first writers to volunteer for extra assignments. For example, during dynamic fold-in, she assumed responsibility for folding in other writers feature modules and for keying numerous edits into our large command ref files. She volunteered to be our representative for SPRIT (SIIS re-engineering effort) and for the RN Process Improvement Team. She helped the ITD doc group recover the effects of having their DDTS script broken for six months. In addition, she led our team in the PSIRT effort.

Cisco Tools and Practices

1. Cisco.com training as announced
2. Task Analysis training

Cisco Voice and Networking Technology

Cisco New Product Introduction VOD

Employee's Development Notes:
Have not had the opportunity to take classes. Seem to be one deadline after the other.

Manager Evaluation:
The lack of bandwidth for formal training has not kept Chris from keeping abreast of voice technology - she was able to quickly study and absorb the technology contained in AESOP (Advanced e-services outboard processor delivering voice-mail, IP-AA and IP-IVR) and Lambretta (advanced features for Survivable Remote Site Telephony and IOS Telephony Service). The technical content of the subjects she mastered this year is more complex than the content in some of the formal classes that other writers took.

Chris not only completed task analysis training, but she also implemented her training. She held a task analysis session with the Aesop team, three SMEs, and the four writers who she was responsible for coaching. Because of the large number of remote folks, Chris creatively used NetMeeting to share a "list" file.

1. Improve customer satisfaction and quality
2. Develop and execute on a coordinated migration plan to new information product architectures
3. Improve internal productivity
4. Develop best practices

Improve customer satisfaction and quality; improve internal productivity -- Continue to work on improving the release notes process through cross-BU teams. Stretch goal is one process improvement per quarter.

Develop best practices -- Work with the Lambretta team to better organize their information flow regarding what feature are in what releases. Best practices developed and implemented by release of 3.0 doc set (Spring MCEBU special, 12.3(102)T, or etc.)

Improve customer satisfaction and quality; improve internal productivity -- Integrate task analysis in the Lambretta docs, working with the Lambretta team and TAC to ensure quality. First phase of customer sat initiatives implemented by release of 3.0 doc set (Spring MCEBU special, 12.3(102)T, or etc.); second phase by following release.

Leadership

Continue to look for ways to "do things better" to take ownership of something that I think will effect worthwhile change to streamline processes and improve documentation.

Manager Evaluation:
This is a good development plan in line with Cisco´s business objectives involving customer focus and productivity. Undoubtably, Chris will further evolve and streamline the processes that drive her "Little Shop of Specials" - and our writer throughput will increase. I look forward to the way she will apply her persistent distaste for inefficient processes to new venues.

Manager Summary:
Of special note is Chris 11th-hour support for ITS and SRST, two of Cisco s high profile projects. Her support enabled us to deliver documentation even though the key writer went on leave unexpectedly. In addition to quickly coming up-to-speed with a new technology, she provided aggressive management of the team, which is known for being customer and market driven, sometimes at the expense of writer bandwidth.

True to form, Chris accomplished a variety of changes that saved department resources. When the first special appeared in PDS, she saved our release note writer a minimum of 25 research hours with a guarantee of increased accuracy. The cost to our group was Chris presentation to the release team, some e-mails, and her steadfast adherence to no PDS forms, no docs.

She delivered her strong performance with graciousness and wit in the face of some extremely irritating obstacles -- CDC personnel who did not believe her product was "real" and refused to create metadata for a month, CCIM breakdowns that interfered with FCS, writers in another BU who set her released files to deferred, a product team that introduced multiple features in the 11th hour, and PMs she had to train
.
This focal she demonstrated some new skills in knowing when to fold. With BugTool Kit, she eventually stopped driving issues that proved beyond control. She went into monitoring mode and is currently waiting for outcomes from another source. She wanted to have bugs reliably visible to customers from BugTool Kit so that our RNs merely had to list bug numbers and headlines, but in order to maintain customer sat, Chris decided to revert to including the entire text.

I added several stretch goals to Chris previous focal: "transition out of release notes and return to feature module writing" and "apply her creativity and innovation to processes within feature module writing (especially in the do-more-with less realm) that will help us achieve Larry Carter´s productivity-per-employee goals." While her PM expertise is still needed with RNs, she successfully trained multiple writer replacements and now focuses primarily on feature module and apps doc writing. She has indeed brought "do more with less" values to doc writing through her tight organization of product teams and doc sets.

Felicia Reis, a release PM calls Chris an exceptional performer and says, Chris is great to work with:
1) she jumps on requests immediately
2) she always has a helpful attitude
3) she checks her email at night and on weekends (she s easily accessible)
4) she does a comprehensive job on the Release Notes
When I know she s handling my release notes, I feel confident that things will go smoothly. She takes full responsibility for her duties and sees the job through to the end.

When Chris wrote a farewell e-mail to the product team that had grown attached to her, she mentioned the team s sense of humor and healthy irreverence. I find these are also earmarks of Chris personal style, which has changed this year to include an increased ability to tread gently on egos. Chris has good skills for influencing others, a strong sense of accountability, and extremely personable ways that serve her well as a telecommuter. Superb job!

Overall Rating: E (Employee is successful; meets all key performance expectations)