RE: Starting from scratch

[Suzette Seveny <sseveny -at- petvalu -dot- com>]

I can tell you what we did here - because I was in exactly the same position 
when I started.  As the first techwriter in this company, I was given the task 
of developing the process and the standards.  Here's what I established:

I initiated a Documentation Team, to help solidify decisions.  This team was 
comprised of the VP - ITS, the Director of Software Development, a User 
Representative, a Systems Analyst, and a Senior Developer (along with myself). 
Each decision I made was reviewed by this team and approved.

I developed a process for developing documentation that began with the Business 
Requirements doc.  This enabled us to deliver the documentation almost 
simultaneously with the software.  Every step of the documentation process 
closely mirrors the software development process - reviews, testing, release, 
etc.

We debated online vs printed and made the decision to go with online 
documentation in PDF format.  From there, the decision was made to use 
FrameMaker to develop the documentation.

Then we developed our standards - a style for our documentation, legal caveats, 
fonts, layout, reading levels, and all that kind of stuff.

As well, because they were being so accommodating, I also specified that I 
required internet access, a private office, a faster computer, etc.  They never 
questioned - they just approved.  Of course, it took a little longer to 
convince them the 19 inch monitor was a necessity, but eventually they came 
around to my way of thinking - if only to shut me up!  :)

Hope some of that helps, I am actually writing this in a hurry!

Suzette Seveny
Markham, Ontario, Canada
sseveny -at- petvalu -dot- com or suzette -at- yesic -dot- com
------------------------------------------------------------------
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Any opinions expressed are MY opinions.
Feel free to have your own.
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On Thursday, January 06, 2000 7:18 PM, mikala morgan [SMTP:dolphina -at- visto -dot- com] 
wrote:
> I have accepted a job with a company that is rebuilding its IT division. They
> have never had a tech writer and don't have a stick of
> documentation....nothing.
>
> I have plenty of ideas, but would like to know what some of you would do to
> your documentation departments if you could start with a clean slate and a
> (within reason) blank check.
>