The fundamental issue is Return on Investment (ROI), whether the staff is one writer or 100. Here are the major cost factors that must be evaluated:
A Realizable positive values of a structured solution. 1. A breakdown of the identifiable costs of the current unstructured methodology which can be reduced or eliminated by a structured approach. Most of these are reducible labor costs. 2. What needed current and future improvements in information management and productivity, not realizable under the unstructured approach, could be implemented under a structured approach. Consider not only current needs, but also predictable future needs which are only feasible under a structured approach. Estimate the long-term positive value to the enterprise of these improvements. B. Estimated negative costs of conversion to the structured approach 1. Cost of new software. 2. Cost of development to initially implement a structured approach. 3. The cost of training activities needed to implement the structured approach. C. Any additional positive and negative cost factors associated with the transition to a strucured approach. One probable positive value is that many employees outside the writing group will discover that they now have much more cost-effective ways to precisely locate and retrieve technical document information they need to perform their tasks. If you can assign realistic positive and negative numbers to the listed factors, and the positive values substantially exceed the new negative costs, you may be able to make the case for a structured approach. =================================
