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Savvy career-minded professionals should consider incorporating these marketing techniques into their annual objectives.
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by Barbara Stuhlemmer
As techcom professionals, we have been talking about authoring in XML for a very long time. At first, it was a lot of hype about a format that required major programming skills and had zero tools’ support, but that is now changing.
Avoid the SOX documentation nightmare with these 5 tips
by Vin D'Amico
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act has been called the most comprehensive reform of corporate law since the Securities Exchange Act was passed in 1934. The effects of SOX are far reaching. Its provisions govern actions by management, audit committees, and boards of directors of public companies.
Calculating the Financial Impact of DITA for Translation
by Amber Swope
Success in a global marketplace requires translating content into multiple languages. Moving to a topic-based XML architecture, such as the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA), can help you control the translation process and save money.
Communicating for Diversity
by Kerri Harris
Effective communication is a manager’s greatest tool in rallying groups toward a common cause. From the annual department address to daily email, careful audience consideration is vital in determining how accurately audiences receive messages. Even the most engaging statements lose meaning when barriers to effective communication foster misconception and confusion.
Considerations for Hiring Technical Writers
by Philip Rastocny
Many times, hiring situations provide opportunities to expand your group in more than one way. Finding the right technical writer candidates can be burdensome, but with a clear goal fixed in your memory and renewed each day, your up-stream paddling toil can easily become a down-stream paddling pleasure.
Dealing With Professional Burnout
by Whitney Potsus
Quick! Answer the following questions without putting a lot of thought into them. We want your instinctive, knee-jerk first response.
Demand for Specialized Staffing Companies Helps Writing Assistance Stomp First Quarter Goals with a 70 Percent Increase in Revenue over Last Year
Writing Assistance, the national leader in contract technical writing, announced today that first quarter revenue has increased 70 percent over the same quarter in 2005.
Eliminating the END GAME from Electronic Deliverables
by Alan J. Porter
While executive management may sometimes believe that anyone can write and that a technical writer's job is to "Just Publish It", it may be time for technical writers to look at what they can do to improve the "end game" process, which Porter describes as "All the steps needed to create the desired output format – HTML, PDF, online help system, etc. – from the source content."
Five Questions to Ask Yourself While Creating a New Documentation Department
by Eric Butow
Congratulations! You're the manager of your company's emerging documentation department — and your work has just begun. To create effective documentation for your customers, you not only have to build a sound team, but also build working relationships with all other departments in your company.
Five Secrets to Successful Interviewing and Hiring
by Karen O'Keefe
This article covers five key activities, including: writing a detailed job description; making sure the setting/environment is conducive; conducting a programmed interview; using multiple interviewers; and considering testing.
Fundamentals of Leadership: Communicating a Vision
by Kerri Harris
Today's business climate of outsourcing, in-sourcing, virtual teams, and ROI-driven objectives can leave a manager at any level feeling powerless. Yet, we often see examples of those who can elicit unwavering support from their teams, driving highly effective projects, and getting the best performance from employees despite ever-increasing workloads.
Hiring Contract Technical Writers
by Scott Hartmann
So you've got approval to hire a contract technical writer. Maybe it's for overflow work or a special project. Nevertheless, it is your responsibility and you want to do it right.
How to Justify Conference Attendance
by Mike Doyle
Professional conferences can be expensive and not all budget managers understand their importance or the benefits derived by conference attendees. Mike Doyle includes some handy worksheets you can use in his disussion.
How to Justify Hiring Technical Writers During Hard Economic Times
by Aparna Datta
Of course, today's technical writers not only write, they also perform many other tasks: programming, web development, training, and so on. Add to that the fact that many are also highly trained and certified in other areas besides writing.
How to Market a Documentation Department
by Robert King
When you first ventured into the tech writing ranks, marketing the department was likely the furthest thing from your mind. You already had work to do, so marketing was somebody else's job.
It's In the Numbers: Using Metrics to Plan Documentation Projects
by Margie Yundt and Sherry McMenemy
It's in the numbers. Creating documentation is not an exact science, yet as communication leaders, we are expected to provide real estimates for how much time we need to document a project, or what we can produce given a predetermined timeline.
Making the Transition From Techcom to Marcom
by Christy Simard
At first glance, technical communication (techcom) and technical marketing communication (marcom) appear to be very different genres. Where traditional techcom strives to help people use products, marcom seeks to make people realize they need products.
Making the Transition from Technical Writer to Manager
by Steve Capri
This article is a collage of ideas and experiences from some people who've made the leap from writer to manager. Although it's not a step-by-step guideline, it provides some compelling insight as to what individuals might expect as they transition into the management ranks. Even if you are an experienced manager, you might find these ideas helpful.
Managing Conflict
by Kerri Harris
Conflict is characteristic in any situation that brings diverse groups together to manage tasks and obstacles. Nowhere is that more apparent than in business environments based on hierarchical structures where teams are inherited and divergent objectives create barriers to effective teamwork. Conflict resolution is among the many tasks delegated to managers, yet it is often the most difficult to master.
Managing Documentation Teams with Varied Schedules and Locations 
by Brett Peruzzi
In many of today’s corporate work environments, the days of managing a group of people who all share a common physical location and the same work hours are waning. More often, work teams may be composed of people who work in either a company office or from home, in different cities, states, time zones, and countries.
Managing SMEs - Part 1: A Primer for Success
by Philip Rastocny
Just the thought of dealing with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) can create stress in the life of any documentation manager. Philip Rastocny provides in-depth insight on how best to deal with SMEs.
Managing SMEs - Part 2: Selling the Concept to Management
by Philip Rastocny
Part 2 switches the focus to members of your management team and what you can do to sell your team’s professionalism. Also included are hints on how your writers can individually sell themselves to gain cooperation from SMEs.
Negotiation Techniques
by Kerri Harris
Most of us are involved in negotiating in some form or other on a daily basis. Here is a look at the process of negotiation and tips you can use to improve your technique as you progress through the process.
Paradigm Shifts are Never Pretty: Advice on Making the Move to XML Authoring
by Sarah O'Keefe
Most people are risk-averse, and profound changes such as the move to structured authoring require new skills and workflows. To ensure a successful transition, XML implementers need to assess their team members, identify allies, and build their implementation strategy around the staff members who embrace change.
Potential Position Descriptions for Information Engineering Professionals
by Steve Capri
This article defines the tasks and responsibilities for up to seven levels of information engineers, plus two levels of management, because the author found that many companies do not provide formal position descriptions for their technical writers and other communication specialists.
Proving Worth: What Technical Communication Managers Must Do to Prove the Value of Their Deliverables
by Hannah Kirk
Technical communication managers are often required to prove the worth of their deliverables over and over again. To do this, managers must execute two tasks persistently. First, they must prove the value of documentation to those interested in the bottom line and, second, they must make that value true. The trick to increasing value with internal and external users is to identify areas where documentation can save time and money, to create agreement that the documentation can save time and money, and to ensure that the documentation does save time and money. Find out how.
Raising Your Documentation Team's Visibility
by Whitney Potsus
Whether the documentation department has a staff of one or a team of 12, visibility within the company is a frequent concern. The reasons for this concern range from personal to professional. You want to be remembered when promotions and bonuses are handed out.
Streamlining the Phases of Disaster Recovery
By Vin D'Amico
All too often, companies either rely upon personal knowledge and skill to recover from emergency situations, or they write a multi-volume encyclopedia of recovery procedures. When disaster strikes, neither approach lends itself to rapid response.
Starting a Technical Writing Business from Scratch
by Ruth Nickolich
What does it take to start your own technical-writing business? Chutzpa! Insanity! I began mine by getting a loan from my local bank for my first computer to set up a home office. It was a Micron desktop 386, the fastest computer in town! That was nine years ago. I now have a nice office, a sizeable staff, and all the work I can handle, most of the time.
The First Line of Support
by Eric Butow
You may have had this conversation with your software development team once or a hundred times before: We need documentation for our software so our users will know how to use it.
The Life of a Lone Writer
by Whitney Potsus
“Lone writers” — those people who work as their employer’s only staff writers — are a different breed, with their own unique set of professional and personal challenges. At the same time a blessing and a curse, the lone writer life offers flexibility, variety, and autonomy, along with feelings of stress, isolation, and burnout.
The Why and How of Content Convergence and Integration
by Rahel Anne Bailie
Content producers are about to live through interesting times, to adapt the popular saying, with the dawning of The Age of Content. Industry is discovering content as a commodity; the rules are changing, and fast.What have traditionally been seen as the lowliest form of commercial content within an enterprise, technical manuals, are starting to take their place alongside the other valued corporate assets.
The Write Man For The Job: Tech Writing Firm Writing Assistance Inc. Grew On Dot-Com Bust
by Jordan Stalker
As the dot-com bubble began to deflate at the end of 2000, Scott Hartmann saw an opportunity for his recently acquired writing business.
Think Globally, Write Locally
by Kristen Giovanis
Companies operating in a global marketplace know they need to translate documents for their audiences. But some documents actually need more than translation – they need localization. Although a document’s words can be translated perfectly, the document can still be ineffective in another market, due to differences in the way local businesses operate and in the way people think.
Top 10 Interview Tips
by Karen O'Keefe
As an interviewee, these actions might give you a competitive edge. As an interviewer, they might help set your standards on how you rate potential candidates.
Topic-Based Writing to the Rescue: Project Considerations for Managers (Case Study)
by Rahel Anne Bailie
During the spring of 2008, I got a call from a friend who asked if I could help a valued client with a “rescue” project.
Training Technical Communicators for Management
by Jessica Erber-Stark
Identifying management candidates and training technical communicators before they get promoted to management positions can make for a very smooth and successful transition for both the candidate and the organization.
Turning Web 2.0 Into Business as Usual
by Kerri Harris
Web 2.0 is hip, trendy, and reminiscent of catch-phrases from the Dot-com boom when just about anything related to binary was so "Now."
Understanding the Need for Content Quality Management
by Diane Wieland
An interview with Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler that's both a bit controversial and inspiring that looks at how good content quality management can be a great benefit for tech pubs departments.
Wearer of Many Hats: One Management Style Does Not Fit All
by Jeffrey Young
Trying to convince multiple individuals to head in the same direction requires figuring out the mindsets of those multiple people and what it takes to motivate them to follow your lead. The article discusses four "hats" managers may have to wear and which management “hat” works best for each situation.
Who Says You Can't Use Microsoft Word To Do XML?
by Scott Abel
Although MS Word can generate XML, it should not be considered any kind of a robust XML authoring tool. Instead, its XML features are best for use with other Microsoft Office applications. However, because XML authoring is gaining in popularity, new XML authoring software tools and utilities are coming to market. In this article, Scott Abel looks at using MS Word for XML and takes a closer look at one alternative XML solution from a Microsoft partner that uses Word's familiar interface.
Why Technical Publishing Shouldn't Be Art
by Alan J. Porter
“Writing is a solitary occupation. Publication is a group exercise,” so stated novelist Madeline Robbins in her February 25, 2008 blog entry on the DeepGenre Web site. And she’s correct. The work may start with the author, but to get it from the author to the end reader means it also has to go through an editor, copy editor, book designer, typesetter, printer, sales and marketing team, distributor, book buyer, and, eventually, a retail store.
XML Authoring: Coming to a Desktop Near You
by Scott Abel
XML for use in technical publications is growing in popularity. As the author explains, technical writers are likely to become more and more involved in XML document production in the future. This article looks at the many benefits of XML authoring and the trend that's moving technical publications toward structured content.
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