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Subject:Re: This too is technical communication From:Troy Klukewich <tklukewich -at- sbcglobal -dot- net> To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Date:Fri, 1 Jun 2007 11:17:28 -0700 (PDT)
I'm very much on track with what you are saying, only I would add that:
* Most companies, at least that I've seen in software, really do not know how to employ tech writers with good architectural and I would argue even just good writing skills (inconsistency, for example, and documentation by the pound being endemic). If they're techie enough and "smart", it's presumed that they can write well and often they do not.
* Writers with good architectural skills and global thinking are still a rarity, so in some cases it is a problem of supply and demand. If you can demonstrate these skills, you are highly employable. Add efforts like XML and DITA to the mix, the needs for these skills will only increase.
* I would say that most companies, perhaps even the vast majority, employ poor documentation processes given what I've seen with a lot of room for growth and improvement. Having gone through CMMI efforts for documentation, I would confidently say that most doc groups are at level 1.
Better methodologies, thankfully, do already exist and have existed for many years. Are they widespread in our industry? Not at all. If you compare our industry with a mature industry like manufacturing with widespread ERP implementations that enforce consistency, we have a long way to go.
Is it fair to compare our industry with manufacturing where consistent processes are valued? Sure, because when we use consistent processes within the content domain, we improve business, too. And it can be done. Some are even saying that "ERP for information and content" (otherwise known as CMS) is the next big thing in business.
Potentially, and in fact, we have far more core value within product documentation and content infrastructure itself than, say, taking minute notes or leveraging our transferable skills elsewhere in the company.
Troy
----- Original Message ----
From: Gene Kim-Eng <techwr -at- genek -dot- com>
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Sent: Friday, June 1, 2007 10:52:15 AM
Subject: Re: This too is technical communication
This is a reasonable arguement for the proposition that there are
*companies* that are "not mature" and don't know how to employ
tech writers to produce documentation that is not "inefficient and
inconsisten," or *writers* who are "not mature" and don't know
how to produce it. That's not the same thing as the entire field of
technical writing being "not mature."
The fact that many people employ poor processes and do a job
badly does not demonstrate that the methodologies to do the job
well do not exist.
Gene Kim-Eng
----- Original Message -----
From: "Troy Klukewich" <tklukewich -at- sbcglobal -dot- net>
> Working for larger companies for some years now, what I've seen in all cases is that acquisitions of smaller companies include
> documentation and infrastructure with remarkably inefficient and inconsistent processes going back many years. Once these
> documentation architectures are brought up to scale with international markets included, they prove to be unecessarily expensive.
> Though the content had been around for many years, the content infrastructure was hardly mature.
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