Re: Organizational Structure and Technical Writers

[Robert Plamondon <robert -at- PLAMONDON -dot- COM>]

>I am looking for opinions on where a technical writer or
>writing department best fits into an organization. Specifically, is
>it best for a technical writer  to

>     report to a documentation department and be assigned to the
>     team(s) in which they will work?

>     report directly to the team in which they will
>     work?

Back before we had a writing department at Weitek, the ability of
a manager to "capture" a technical writer was a coveted piece of
empire-building prestige.  Having the tech pubs people work together
ran counter to this concept, so the group was Balkanized.

With a separate writing department, writers still got assigned to specific
project teams, often for over a year, but "home" was in the writing
group, no matter how much time they spent in Engineering.

In this period, we developed skills, techniques, procedures, tools, and
sneaky shortcuts that boosted our productivity tremendously.  We could
cover for each other and help each other out in crunch times.  All of
this had been effectively short-circuited during the Balkanized period.

Also, if you assign a writer to an engineering manager here, the writer
will be "temporarily" put to work running simulations and checking test
vectors, never to be seen again.

        -- Robert
--
Robert Plamondon * Writer * robert -at- plamondon -dot- com * (408) 321-8771
4271 North First Street, #106 * San Jose * California * 95134-1215
   "Writing is like plumbing -- even people who know how to do it will
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