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.
Re: How many product releases do you support in a given year?
Subject:Re: How many product releases do you support in a given year? From:Shawn <shawn -at- cohodata -dot- com> To:Julie Stickler <jstickler -at- gmail -dot- com> Date:Wed, 19 Mar 2014 09:16:47 -0700
>But it sounds like 20 deadlines per year per writer would still put us on
the high end, even for an Agile environment.
The value itself is not nearly as telling as the amount of work required
per release.
As a lone tech writer, working for a startup, I am working about sixty
hours per week; however, I have less than five release deadlines per year
to meet. What complicates my job is that our products are evolving faster
than I can document (and take screen captures). By the time I was ready to
release v1 docs, I had to rewrite several chapters and replace screen
captures a few times.
I'm not complaining... hopefully, your work environment is as fun as my
work environment. That changes the severity of your day to day stress.
On Tue, Mar 18, 2014 at 1:01 PM, Julie Stickler <jstickler -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 18, 2014 at 3:27 PM, Yehoshua <ysp10182 -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:
>
> > Around 18, I'd imagine. We have a major/minor deadline once or twice
> every
> > month.
> >
>
>
>
> > > On Mar 18, 2014, at 20:58, Hannah Drake <hannah -at- formulatrix -dot- com>
> wrote:
> > > At least 12.
> >
>
>
> Thanks guys. I'd been trying to figure out if my last year was excessive
> or not in an Agile environment.
>
> Last year I had documentation deliverables for 36 separate releases (that's
> one every week and a half). Part of that was due to losing my boss last
> summer and trying to keep up with everything by my lonesome until we hired
> another technical writer. But it sounds like 20 deadlines per year per
> writer would still put us on the high end, even for an Agile environment.
>
> (I'm lobbying to add a third writer, which was one reason why I asked....)
>
>
> --
> Julie Stickler
>http://heratech.wordpress.com/
> Blogging about Agile and technical writing
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> Doc-To-Help 2014 v1 now available. SharePoint 2013 support, NetHelp
> enhancements, and more. Read all about it.
>
> Learn more: http://bit.ly/NNcWqS
>
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as shawn -at- cohodata -dot- com -dot-
>
> To unsubscribe send a blank email to
> techwr-l-leave -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
>
>
> Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- Visit
>http://www.techwhirl.com/email-discussion-groups/ for more resources and
> info.
>
> Looking for articles on Technical Communications? Head over to our online
> magazine at http://techwhirl.com
>
> Looking for the archived Techwr-l email discussions? Search our public
> email archives @ http://techwr-l.com/archives
>
--
*Shawn Connelly*
Technical writer
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Doc-To-Help 2014 v1 now available. SharePoint 2013 support, NetHelp enhancements, and more. Read all about it.
