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Being asked to take the reins of a brand new documentation department is a challenge that many professional technical writers relish, even though the training and development activities they participated in may never have prepared them for such a rewarding challenge. This article looks at forming a new documentation department, team or group and determining what’s needed, when it’s needed and what resources are available to help the new group carry out its mission.
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.
In my contracting travels, I’ve set up two new documentation departments in two very different settings. My first was a documentation department for a startup networking software company in 1999. The company’s only previous documentation was a slim manual written by a programmer.
In 2004, I helped set up a new documentation department at the financial aid division for a major bank. Over the years, this division had been passed along to different parent banks — the newest of which was shocked to find that no one had written documentation about financial-aid processes, and no documentation about the software they had used during the division’s last 20 years! As a result, the new parent organization decided that relying on the institutional memories of its employees was a major risk, so the documentation department was born.
When you create your own documentation department, you should ask yourself five simple questions that will help your new department show its value to the company as quickly as possible. These questions are similar to those that a good reporter must answer when documenting a story — who, what, where, why, and how? — and they are as important for a documentation department manager as they are for an ace journalist.
The questions are:
Read the full article
Event: Workforce Planning Conference 2010
When: Monday, June 14 through Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Location: Chicago, IL
Sponsored by the Human Capital Institute (HCI), the second annual 2010 Workforce Planning Conference is designed with senior executives in HR, talent management and planning in mind. Since the economic downturn began, planning for future workforce needs has become more difficult than ever.
The conference is set to discuss the issues of workforce planning in challenging times. According to HCI:
“Rapid reorganizations, whether through downsizing or M&A activity, have made it difficult for companies to understand their current talent pool. Developing a hiring plan that accounts for a wide range of future scenarios is even harder. While many firms see the downturn as an opportunity to build a competitive advantage by acquiring top talent, this effort must be carefully guided by strategic workforce planning, with careful attention being paid to the alignment of talent with future business goals.
Conference Links
Conference Brochure
Meet the Presenters
Register Online
Also of Interest
Potential Position Descriptions for Information Engineering Professionals
What to Consider When Hiring a Technical Writer
If you are attending STC’s 56th Annual Conference, Writing Assistance, Inc (WAI) would like to make your visit to Dallas a success on and off the show’s floor.
Writing Assistance, Inc. (WAI) has compiled a guide to its favorite Dallas restaurants and bars. We’ve compiled this into a PDF document you can print and take to the conference with you.
Get a taste of what this historical city has to offer, but don’t forget to visit WAI in Booth 116 to find out who we are, what we offer and for a more complete and complimentary dining guide to the city’s best!
And don’t forget to register for our Kindle Giveaway at Booth 116. There will be two drawings, so don’t miss out!
Download the STC Dallas Conference Dining Guide
If you’re planning to attend the STC 2010 Annual Technical Communications Summit in Dallas this year, be sure to stop by the Writing Assistance, Inc. booth.
We will be exhibiting at the national STC conference in Dallas May 2nd through the 4th. We’ll be in booth 116.
Stop by and enter a chance to win one of two Kindles during the show. See you there! (Mention you saw this on our blog.)
The Society for Technical Communication (STC) will hold its annual Technical Communication Summit in Dallas, TX at the Hyatt Regency Dallas at Reunion Tower 2–5 May 2010. “Walk-In Registration” is now available – meaning it will cost you more than it would have if you had registered prior to April 20th.
Group rates are available for the Hyatt Regency for $169 (plus tax) single or double occupancy.
This year’s event will include:
- Over 80 sessions in nine tracks. More advanced sessions are identified as “Institutes”.
- Two receptions, morning and afternoon refreshment breaks, and lunch on Wednesday (Honors Banquet is an optional fee)
- Online storage of most sessions, access to which will be included in the registration available so that sessions you were unable to attend will be available online, through a service referred to as SUMMIT@aClick.
- Special Interest Group (SIG) networking events on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday mornings.
- More than 50 booths showcasing products and services of interest to technical writers and other technical communicators.
Preconference events include certificate sessions and workshop/tutorial sessions (optional fee required).
More Information on the 2010 Technical Communication Summit
2010 Technical Communication Summit Sesssion List
Hotel Info for the Hyatt Regency
Exhibitor Information
Register for the Summit
In this post on documentation over at ostatic.com’s blog, Joe Brockmeier talks about how documentation for open source software is almost always overlooked.
He makes a good point when he reminds us that Google has been running its Summer of Code program since 2005.
In that program, Google has worked on hundreds of open source programs and distributed millions of dollars to try to encourage more people to get involved with open source development, but unfortunately there’s no allowance for what is probably the most pressing open source need: to develop better documentation to go with the open source software.
To add insult to injury, Brockheimer says, Fedora is now pushing its “Summer of Coding for 2010, which is all about code and doesn’t address documentation.
His point makes a lot of sense. Here would be a great opportunity for technical writers still in college to get some solid experience writing open source documentation. In fact, it’s making me think that maybe the Society for Technical Communications (STC) should consider stepping up and taking an active role in promoting the idea.
Related: How Technical Writers Add Value to Your Team
What do you think? Could open source software – where it exists – be better presented? Do you think a worldwide internship program for technical writing students in this area would be worthwhile? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.
Editor’s Note: This was the feature article in this month’s TechCom Manager newsletter, reprinted here with permission. Click the previous link to subscribe to the newsletter.
by Uri Galimidi
Job Hunting In Turbulent Times
Almost one year ago, unemployment in the US was 9.4% (or 14.5 million people) and job openings were approximately 2.7 million. If you have been laid off recently, you are probably asking yourself “What would it take for me to be successful in my job hunting?”
First and foremost, you have to be at the top of your mental form. You have to be very clear about your goal, be creative, resourceful, determined, understand the best techniques and resources out there, and have a strong support system.
This article aims to bring you an insightful Career Transition FrameworkTM that will help you meet your career objective. Let’s start with an interesting job-hunting story.
(more…)
As the economy starts heating up, the demand for contract technical writers is likely to be strong. As a rule, in the early stages of economic recovery temporary workers are first to get hired. This makes it easier on employers who may still be uncertain how robust the recovery will be and how long it will take to fully recover to the point where business resumes its once-steady growth.
When it comes time to resume permanent hiring, if the company needs to add a full-time technical writer to its documentation team, it can be very beneficial to convert a successful and highly-valued contract technical writer to permanent status. This saves employers time and money in the recruiting and hiring process.
In this article, Writing Assistance Inc.’s founder Scott Hartmann provides valuable insight into how to go about hiring a contract technical writer, including the development of an appropriate job description and what to look for in contract technical writing applicants. His insights will provide guidance not only to those needing to hire contract technical writers, but to those who may be considering the possibility of adding one or more permanent technical writers to their team.
Read: Hiring Contract Technical Writers
Related topics:
Featured in our last newsletter
Employers are managing to boost production without creating new jobs. The question is, according to this piece on moneynews.com, when they’ll feel the need to ramp up hiring.
Many employers lack confidence that the recovery is sustainable, especially as government stimulus measures fade, economists said. Companies still feel bruised from the recession.
A recent Labor Department report suggested that companies are still cutting costs and putting off hiring even as the economy recovers.
Is your company in a similar situation? When confidence is down and workload is up, utilizing a contractor creates the flexibility needed for uncertain times. Because of that, some signs seem to indicate the number of temporary jobs is rising. So now is a very good time to bring in contractors to get the work done while still providing a hedge against too-slow economic growth in the months ahead.
Our broad pool of talented technical writers, copywriters, designers and training developers allows us to offer you the most experienced, highly qualified professionals available, local to you and precisely targeted to fit your needs.
Whether you require contract or direct-hire, we match our professionals to your project within two days and within your budget. Contact us today to get started.
LinkedIn, like other forms of social media and social networking sites, is growing increasingly popular as an effective way to recruit employees.
While recruiters are still using big job board websites, like Monster.com, CareerBuilder.com and CraigsList.com to find applicants to fill job vacancies, contacts from these “traditional” sources often include hundreds of resumes from unqualified applicants and plenty of spam.
In her article, Use LinkedIn for Recruiting Employees, Susan Heathfield, About.com Guide to Human Resources provides specific insight from several recruiters on how they are using LinkedIn to find qualified applicants for open positions. And, as she correctly points out:
“The potential for LinkedIn and other social networking sites to play a major role in your employee recruiting strategy increases as millions of potential employees profile themselves on these sites each year.”
Source: Use LinkedIn for Recruiting Employees
For Applicants: Social Media – Are You Missing Out?
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