Re: tech writer to engineer ratio

[Daniel Shugrue <dbshugrue -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

Thanks for all for participating.  In all, I received
23 e-mails.  The numbers broke down to:
1 Tech Writer: 9.4 engineers: 2.1 QA analysts

Reading the responses reminded me of several important
factors influencing the numbers, such as:
Is the Tech Writing group also responsible for
training?
Is the TW group doing HW or just SW writing?
Does TW group help with editing Marketing or other
copy?
Is TW group responsible for maintaining docs on
internet or intranet site?

I also found an archived message that had asked the
same question and had similiar results, the following
is pasted from that message:
"The answers to such a question always disclose
assumptions one should have stipulated and other
questions one should have asked, but all told this
question got pretty consistent results. A
writer:engineer ratio of 1:10 or 1:12 seems to be a
norm. Companies that we would prefer to be the
standard bearers come in with ratios like 1:4, 1:5,
and 1:7. At the other end, 1:20 is pretty common, and
unhappy 1:50 situations exist. " 
from
http://listserv.okstate.edu/CGI/WA.EXE?A2=ind9607A&L=techwr-l&P=R668

Thanks and regards,
Daniel

--- Daniel Shugrue <dbshugrue -at- yahoo -dot- com> wrote:
> I have been conducting an informal survey of fellow
> techwriters on how many tech writers are needed per
> engineer in a software company.  
> 
> I currently work in an environment that has
> 18 developers engineers
> 10 QA engineers
> 2 Tech Writers
> 
> I understand other companies work on similiar ratios
> 1 tech writer: 10 developers : 8 QA engineers
> while others have as many as
> 1 tech writer : QA engineer : 4 developers.
> 
> Anyone interested in taking part in the survey can
> e-mail me directly at daniel -dot- shugrue -at- nokia -dot- com
> 
> I'll be happy to compile and report the answers.
> 
> Thanks and regards,
> Daniel
> 
> 
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