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.
I must confess that I'm also in the corner of process - while we don't do a
lot of fixed price projects (we do contract technical writing on a project
basis), we are currently helping to define technical writing in Calgary (our
market is slightly behind much of North America in terms of trends and
timelines). At this point, one of the objections we deal with is the
assumption that tech writing is more "creative" than it is "business". We
work hard to show our clients that tech writing is a business just like any
other business, and that it brings value to their product and marketing
cycle. This mean process - we have to be able to replicate success over and
over, and the only way we know of guaranteeing this is to use a process.
(This also helps us to increase our efficiency when we're doing
non-chargable things - like proposals!)
I agree that process used wrong becomes bureaucratic, cumbersome, and gets
in the way of doing business, but we've found that it's absolutely
necessary. In fact, we work hard to ensure that our process doesn't get in
the way. It's the lifeblood of our business, it increases the quality and
value of technical writing in our geographic community, and without it, we'd
go broke!
Soapbox speech over - thanks for the temporary loan!
