The paradox of information: control versus chaos in managing documentation projects with multiple audiences

The paper considers how documentation professionals are faced today with a paradox that seems to defy resolution. We have learned the necessity for employing careful planning and mature project management practices to produce documents that match the needs of our users. On the other hand, we face the reality of Web time, wherein those users expect us to deliver information faster than previous methods have allowed. We cannot simply abandon practices that have proven to work; indeed, we have seen the consequences of simply slapping existing paper documents onto the Web. Each organization in each industry will have to determine how much to truncate the proven project management standards. Perhaps one model for doing so is the “just good enough, just in time” mode, which will allow us to deliver information products that work, and to do so quickly, with the understanding that we can improve them continually after initial delivery