Discussion list for the AIfIA Tools initiative

[Erin Malone <erin AT emdezine.com>]

Hi everyone -

Welcome to the Tools initiative list - for discussion and brainstorming what
Tools should be created/reviewed/discussed and proposed for IAs.

The Education initiative has posted their posted their working proposal and
plan here:

http://aifia.org/pg/proposal_for_an_ia_curriculum.php

I want to develop a plan that is similar in scope to this. It would be great
if everyone could review their plan and the format of the plan.

I have a document in progress and have included it in the body of this
email. The doc focuses on the Internal IA tools but we don't have to start
out that narrow.

I am working to get a WIKI set up so that we can all have access to post
ideas and work on the draft document. In the meantime as we come up with
ideas I will add them to the Word doc.

...........................

Proposal for Tools Initiative ­ In-house


OVERVIEW & GOALS

The AIfIA In-house Tools Initiative will create a set of tools and templates
for working professionals who are internal to a corporation, government or
educational group. The tools may be similar to those a consultant might use,
but the internal tools will be geared towards internal structure of
organizations.


WHY?

Often IAs in internal organizations must educate not only their bosses, but
their coworkers as well. The education and collaboration may be in creative
organizations, development organizations and business organizations. The IA
may often be a lone advocate for the role of IA within a creative group and
educating their team is part of the job.



WHY US?

AIfIA is the right sponsor for this initiative because this group of
experienced practitioners represent IAs within internal corporate
environments as well as consulting groups. The wide range of experiences
will provide a vast palette of tools, ideas and expertise from which to
draw. The AIfIA offers the infrastructure for development of these tools as
well as dissemination and validation of these tools.


APPROACH

- Tools should cover the range of needs seen by internal IAs. Research
should be conducted to define the scope of needed tools and smaller groups
within the initiative group may be responsible for individual tools, with
the entire group offering feedback and validation.

- Such an initiative could possibly become large and drawn out. Therefore,
release versions early and often to offer the community our latest thinking
and positively reinforce the team.

- Volunteers have limited time and our contribution is temporary. Therefore,
parse the work into finite tasks.

 

ACTIVITIES

Work may be divided up into phases and then types of tools to be created.
Small teams from the larger team may be created to ³divide and conquer.²
Each team will be responsible for the creation of a tool and for meeting
deliverable milestones.  Initial work will be done by the entire initiative
group and may include research, definition, review and delivery of the
toolkit.

  

Phase 1 - Research

- Plan: agree on and outline the activities and tasks for this release. For
example:
 

-- Audit existing tools

--- Locate existing examples from the broad IA community

--- Gather examples and review

--- Summarize findings

 

-- Survey internal IA's needs

--- Design survey 

--- Call for survey participation

--- Analyse survey results

--- Summarize findings

 

Phase  2 - Implementation

-- Create Master list of Internal tools to be created

--- Divide list up into manageable chunks

--- Create small groups to tackle one or more tools

--- Create schedule and milestones for delivery

 

--  Review each group¹s project

--- Review and provide feedback as a large group to each tool

--- Make changes and submit for second review

--- Submit to Board and LC for final review

 

-- Deliver Tools in toolkit to AIfIA site

--- Post completed tool to Internal Tools area of the website

--- Form must be able to be downloaded and used by practicing IAs

--- Provide mechanism for community feedback and improvement cycle

 
 

REQUIRED RESOURCES

thinking about communication from the bottom up:

- bulletin board or email list: need an internaltools AT aifia.org mailing list
for conversations

- someplace to summarize conversations: places like wikis are good for
co-editing documents-in-progress

-       - someplace to hold documents: aifia.org Internal Tools section
should be the holding place for word.docs and pdf files.

-        

 

TEAM

WORKING GROUP (so far)

Erin Malone - initiative leader
Larry Wood
John Zaplski
Cindy Alvarez
James Parsons
Mike Steckel
Javier Velasco
Sunil Malhotra
Jesse Hernandez Liwag
Laura Scherer Quinn