RE: Organizational structure - where does Doc sit?

[Kim Roper <kim -dot- roper -at- vitana -dot- com>]

Jane Doe wrote:  

"In our company, TechPubs is in Engineering.  We produce end-user materials,
help, SDK, white papers, and technical resources for use by other internal
groups such as Marketing and Training.

As TechPubs Manager, I report directly to the VP of Engineering; the
Engineering Program Manager, QA Manager, and various Engineering Team Leads
also report to this same VP, who, in turn, reports to the COO."

I'm the Lone Technical Writer here.  Like Jane, I'm in the Engineering
Department.  However, I report to the Product Integrity and Testing Manager,
who reports to the VP of Engineering.  I have a counterpart in the Marketing
Department:  the Creative Writer.

This makes a blistering amount of sense to me.  When I'm working on the
manuals, I can find things overlooked by people too close to the project. To
get the content right, I need to put the products through their paces
(obviously without the benefit of a current manual :), so I'm doing front
line user testing.   I can also be called upon to do product testing if
required, although it hasn't happened yet. 

Mind you, I have a technical background and an awful tendency to say, "The
backups are done--now, what happens when I push *this* button ...?" and,
even worse, "What happens if I connect the hardware *this* way ...?"  I
think it shows that I used to work in tech support.  

Cheers ... Kim