I manage a worldwide group of editors and translators. I make about 100 separate assignments a week, all of which have deadlines from a few hours after they’re assigned to a few days.

Anybody using BC for this kind of short-deadline workflow? How’s it working for you?

And I thought our deadlines were short!

How much communication and collaboration happens on these short-deadline projects? Is it mostly a matter of setting deadlines and chasing up your editors & translators to make sure they’re submitting work on time? Or is there more communication going on?

Mostly setting deadlines, having the editors/translators accept or decline and then let me know when the assignment is finished. About 10% of the time, they’ve got issues with the assignments, some of which I can answer; others get referred to the account manager. I have no way of following up with the a/c mgr now except for email.

Mary, I have a similar situation and I have learned to get comfy with email. I use basecamp mainly to keep us organized and keep me sane. I can see the schedule of events planned and to-dos left on each project but I can not rely on anyone externally to check them off or update it for me. Basically I use it as a site for file history, todos left undone, and calendar of events for the week. Email is my up to the minute communication tool.

I often have reqests that happen all within a day – website and print graphic changes are turned within a few hours. I find these are the MOST important to get into the system because they’re always interuptions in someone’s day and usually only half-heard in a hallway conversation. Here’s how I handle:
1) create a milestone with time due as part of the description:
Internal review – 10am
Go live – 12pm

2) post a message (i like to set up a folder called Work Requests) describing what I need done, attach any files and link to the milestone so they know the deadline. I check just the team member who needs to be notified – they get the email, I have documentation all in one spot, and when they’ve completed work they post a reply to the message with the file attached. What’s even better is all my notes are right there so I can verify they’ve been completed as requested before sending on…
3) if there are mistakes – which there always are – I simply post a reply to the message and so on… (this is also handy as I have reference as to who needs 3 rounds to get it right and who gets it on the first go-round)