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This question is all about methodologies to handle the workload efficiently for a freelance who deals with copy/editing of documents/articles. In my branch (IT development) we have Agile Methodologies that help us to deal with development process, from the beginning to the end. I had a conversation with a person, who does copy/editing of articles, regarding which would be the correct methodology to deal with big amount of job by making the client be aware of the status/difficulties/blockers. I would like to know if there are effective planning techniques like Agile methodologies do and someone who is using them efficiently. Something that can be easily understood and accepted by employers/clients avoiding, as much as possible, delays, misunderstandings, and overloads. Is there any case study to take a look at? Books? Something that a professional copy/editor should know/use in order to make the organizational part less painful.

I hope to write my question in the right place due to the multiple topics involved. In case I made a mistake can someone suggest me the right place to ask?

Thanks

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Agile just focuses on project management by breaking projects into manageable chunks, frequently tracking the progress of the chunks across sprints, and regulating the plan or expectations based on current progress. I'd like to suggest that the same goes for any project, including copy-related projects.

Just as a project/program manager would provide statuses and updates for the various touchpoints in SDLC (software development life cycle) to the client, the freelancer doing copy/edit work can provide a planning, status update, and retrospection calendar to the client. On the said weeks, one can meet with the client to impress upon them the progress and the roadblocks/dependencies. Also, use end-of-sprint retro meetings to highlight gaps in, say collaboration or funding or review inputs. Also, use the sprint-planning meetings to set their expectations right about meeting timelines, say by calling out any past flaws in planning or on-demand, ad-hoc work derailing plans as a risk factor.

Allow me to share this link around documentation from the scrum's official site. See agile and documentation.

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  • Thank you @blackfog, I have been using agile for almost 10 years and it works, it has its own pros and cons but for IT teams essentially works. A friend of mine who has a copy/editor role, is facing a lot of problems with her clients due to the classical wrong methodologies of the companies and their opposition to changes.They are dictating times and rules, something that, for example, in scrum is handled via group estimation. My question was all about if those techniques really worked outside IT and if someone of you dealt with them in an external environment like publishing/editing/writing
    – Yak O'Poe
    Commented May 18, 2020 at 21:52
  • OK. Got it. Project planning for writing roles isn't always understood by other roles just as writers won't completely understand the DNA of say an engineering role. For example, Agile doesn't work 100% of the time for my writer role no matter how aligned and well-knit the team is, simply because writing work gets a lot of ad-hoc requests when customer raises an issue. Engineering doesn't get those in ad-hoc manner. They funnel through their backlog approved by product manager. If required writers can follow a hybrid model of Agile by allocating x% of their bandwidth in the sprint planning.
    – AshishGupta
    Commented May 19, 2020 at 20:00

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