TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:RE: benefits of a publications manager? From:"McKinney, Suzanne" <smckinney -at- microstrategy -dot- com> To:TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 25 Feb 2000 09:28:50 -0500
First of all, who is supervising the writers now? Does this person take care
of things like evaluating new tools (e.g., Frame, graphics) for the writers
to use? Who ensures that good standards are developed, maintained and
followed by the writers? Who mentors new writers to get them up to speed?
Who decides what training/conferences/books should be purchased for the
writers? Who hires new writers (from interviewing to deciding who's
qualified)? Who represents the writing group in management meetings? Also,
do the writers support each other, if needed, e.g., peer reviews of
documentation?
If no one is doing these things, your company publications may be suffering.
It takes a manager to manage all of this. As you grow, you'll probably need
a manager as well as "leads" to oversee all the work. And, as you said,
there's no career path now for the writers.
Perhaps you can use these ideas to draft a proposal for this. I had to do
this at one company so they would understand the need and benefit.
Good luck! :)
Sue
-----Original Message-----
From: Stina Lane-Cummings [mailto:stina -at- real -dot- com]
Sent: Thursday, February 24, 2000 9:45 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: benefits of a publications manager?
I am trying to convince some people here that we need a full-fledged
publication/documentation/user education manager. This is hard, because
there aren't any problems right now. This is because the writers are
wonderfully self-managing and are being supervised by someone who leaves us
alone unless we ask for help. But there isn't a career ladder and people
don't get to work on fun projects. This isn't a problem--yet. But in my
opinion, it will be a problem if we add one more person or if anyone
decides to leave.
Without elaborating on the rest of the picture, the sticking points seem to
be:
1. How is a publications manager different from any other manager?
2. What are the benefits of having a publications manager?
I'm having trouble articulating the wonderfulness of this position in a way
that would be convincing to upper management.
How would you convince upper management that giving a dedicated
publications manager to an existing group of writers is a good idea?
Stina Lane-Cummings
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Sponsored by Weisner Associates Inc., Online Information Services
Training & consulting for RoboHELP, Dreamweaver, HTML, and HTML-Based Help.
More info at http://www.weisner.com/train/ or mailto:training -at- weisner -dot- com -dot-
Sponsored by Rose Hill, Your Business and Career Coach.
"Assume Success! Live Your Passion!" Get the gist at
www.coachrose.com then call 503.629.4804 for details!
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: smckinney -at- microstrategy -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-28822F -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
