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.
At one of my past contracts, I worked for a telecom company who
placed great priority on docmentation. I don't know if it was because
they considered documentation a profit center (they sold
documentation on their software even if the customer didn't buy the
actual software), or if it was because they were following CMM/ISO
guidelines (they were CMM5 and 9 of the 12 SW groups were ISO 900*
registered).
In any case, they had people on staff who's job it was to be the
technical liason between development and customers. They were quite
technical, but with a marketing flair. Their only job was to work
with customers to get the customer's needs infront of the developers.
Anyway, I'd say maybe around half or a little less of the
docmentation bug reports I addressed came from these guys involving
documentation. One longterm project I was given was to rewrite a set
of 4 manuals of over 1200 pages, based on the input from our
customers. The tech rep asked for volunteers from his customers and
they picked 3 of them. I was given direct access to them and they to
me.
In general, what the customers wanted was to have the documentation
created in such as way that (their words, and I quote), "Any chimp
could install the software"
=====
John Posada, Senior Technical Writer
"How to be happy in life: Never impose your beliefs
on anyone else and never fry bacon in the nude."
-- Anon mailto:john -at- tdandw -dot- com, 732-259-2874
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/
*** Deva(tm) Tools for Dreamweaver and Deva(tm) Search ***
Build Contents, Indexes, and Search for Web Sites and Help Systems
Available now at http://www.devahelp.com or info -at- devahelp -dot- com
TECH*COMM 2001 Conference, July 15-18 in Washington, DC
The Help Technology Conference, August 21-24 in Boston, MA
Details and online registration at http://www.SolutionsEvents.com
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
