RE: How can technical documentation add value?

["Giordano, Connie" <Connie -dot- Giordano -at- FMR -dot- COM>]

Reena,

Your goal should not be to have the customer say "good documentation", but
rather "great product".  Stop thinking about documentation as a separate,
discreet process.  Learn something of the business processes involved in
your product, and help design a product that better serves those processes.
Great products do what users need and want them to do, and that takes the
talents of a team of people.

IMNSHO, most of the really great tech writers, at least the ones I've seen
on this list add value by being more than a writer.  They're some unique
combination of analyst, diagnostician, designer, and communicator, who
figure out how to solve problems and produce great products for the
organizations they work for.  They work alongside developers, engineers,
testers, and others, rather than sitting in a ivory tower waiting for a SME
to hand them something they could just as easily learn about on their own.
They don't spend time worrying about whether grammar or content is more
important, instead they spend time getting their hands dirty, exercising
their minds, and putting themselves on the line.

MTC

Connie Giordano
Hoping one day to be a really great product designer

http://www.therightwordz.com


 
-----Original Message-----
From: Reena [mailto:reena -at- interrasystems -dot- com] 
Sent: Monday, January 05, 2004 12:50 AM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: How can technical documentation add value?



Hi,

I would like TWs to share their thoughts on how a TW can add value to the
documentation activity beyond just writing user manuals; how a TW can add
more worth to the documentation activity once the realization that
documentation is needed is firmly cemented in development process; how
technical documentation can make an organization take longer strides; and,
how can an organization ensure that a customer says " good documentation".

Regards,
Reena