Re: One document for both training and reference

[Candace Bamber <kingfish!bamberc -at- SX -dot- COM>]

John Brinegar wrote:
 >If tech pubs and training had been put under the same first-line
management, I
>believe it could have worked.

I think it does work. At my office we have the "Documentation and Training
Department".  Our training courses (so far anyway) are stand up delivery,
and require visual aids, lab manuals and on-line exercises.  The training
and the manuals both have the same deadline and are structured to wrok
together.  We have strict standards about both training, on-line help and
manual development and all of our staff has previous experience or academic
qualifications in training development as well as tech. writing (very
different areas of specialization). The training courses are usually
developed and delivered by the person who does the manual set. We've found
by organizing ourselves this way that we eliminate doubled effort, and it's
easier for the development team if they only have to deal with one
professional user instead of several.

It works well for us, but I can see a potential problem.  We have a great
team here of  senior level writers with lots of experience  in creating
educationally valid training programs AND good user manuals.  As the hiring
person, I can say that we had a hack of a time finding people who were
qualified. So I think that not only do you have to have the right managerial
set-up, you also need the right people - not always easy to find.

Just my two cents.

Candace
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Candace Bamber
Documentation and Training Department
Systems Xcellence
555 Industrial Drive
Milton Ontario

Whatever you can do or dream, begin it.  Boldness has genius, power and
magic in it.
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