Document collaboration: what to ask for?

You have your document to be reviewed and you selected the perfect document collaboration team.

The next step should be easy: formulate your list of requests for your document collaboration companions.

Well, it's not always as easy as it may sound. Especially if you consider the consequences of not knowing how or what to ask from your document collaboration team.

1. First of all, you should give your colleagues details about the audience of your document. This way, they will be able to tell you if the document addresses the audience appropriately.


2. You also have to tell them if they should review the structure or the content of the online collaborative document, or both. As far as it concerns the content, their feedback should tell you if:
   
   1. The material is technically accurate.
   
   
   2. The goals of the document have been achieved.
   
   
   3. The collaborative document respects the quality style and grammar.

There is unnecessary information that should be eliminated. -

1. If there are sections of the collaborative document you don't need reviewed, make sure they are clearly marked. For example, maybe a section was already approved and you don't need another feedback on that. Not knowing this detail, your document collaboration companions will lose their time reviewing the whole text just to find out that you need their feedback only on half of it.


2. You should make sure each reviewer's role is precisely defined. The document collaboration should include different people with specific roles: author, editor, proofreader, subject matter expert, maybe even the client - it's your decision. Still, in order to avoid frustration and wasting time, make sure the roles won't become confused and your document will benefit from this role-based collaboration.


3. Tell your document collaboration colleagues which is the deadline of the project. Of course, you have to make sure it is not a very restrictive deadline for you, as a project manager - you should give yourself some more days as a backup. Further, as the deadline approaches, don't forget to remind your document collaboration companions that you wait for their feedback a.s.a.p.


4. Remind them to use the track changes option for the collaborative document, making your job easier in the final part, the one of joining the comments. Still, you know as well as I do that your job will be just a little bit easier, but not pleasant at all. Using a web based document collaboration tool, like Agilewords, would be the saving solution you are looking for, in order to avoid the track changes hell.