Larry Kunz, an Information Architect with Extreme Networks, is a seasoned project manager and facilitator, having planned and executed numerous content-development projects for companies as diverse as Extreme Networks, IBM, and Abbott Labs. These projects included forming teams, defining workflows, and recommending tools. Larry teaches the Project Management section of Duke University’s Technical Communication certificate program. He holds the rank of STC Fellow and received the STC President’s Award for leading the Society’s strategic planning effort.

Seeking Our Golden Snitch: A Dedicated Documentation Portal

When we realized we were outgrowing our old documentation server, our InfoDev team headed to the Quidditch pitch to seek the golden snitch: A dedicated portal that would free us from being part of the corporate website. This case study describes how we built a team from different parts of the organization, the strategies we used to win the game, what worked, and what didn’t work.

You’ll learn how to Carpe Potestatum (seize the opportunity) and adopt a dedicated documentation portal. Having led the Extreme Networks InfoDev team through the process, Larry Kunz will describe:

• How to know when it’s time to move to a dedicated portal. Our content volume had grown so much that everyone knew our current setup was unsustainable. We needed a shrinking charm (Reducio!) for the huge volume of content we had.
• What criteria to use when selecting a doc portal. Like shopkeepers on Diagon Alley, competing products offered lots of different features. We had to ask ourselves which features mattered to us, and which features sounded good but didn’t fit our wizarding strategy.
• How we got collaboration and buy-in from different “houses” in the organization: Huffandpuff (IT), Mavensclaw (Customer Support), Dytherin (Marketing), and, of course, GrynfoDev.
• What spells worked, and what spells almost turned everyone into frogs.