RE: Role of Technical Writer in IT

[Megan Golding <mgolding -at- secureworks -dot- com>]

Kevin Bell said:
> We are reassessing the role of a technical writer in IT.  
> IT does not utilize or request use of my services for 
> reasons not known to us.

I've been employed in both IT and engineering teams at two different
companies and my experiences have made for some unique job descriptions ;) I
think an outline of my major job functions will help show how I've fit in to
IT and engineering groups in nontraditional ways.

1. Lone writer on an IT team 
   * provide framework in which techies write
     internal documentation. I've implemented
     DocBook & Wiki as tools/mechanisms within 
     which to write. On one side, you might
     compare this to providing documentation
     templates company-wide. This is a documentation
     design role, in my experience and requires
     a lot of insight into how the techies
     work and what they'll find convenient to
     use for internal docs. IT orgs need to produce
     a lot of internal docs. Finding better 
     ways for these folks to document their 
     systems is a huge help.
   * webmaster. Maintain an existing internet 
     site. Required me to learn Apache web server,
     a little Perl CGI, PHP, and other web tech-
     nologies. I also am the intranet webmaster.
     At a larger organization, perhaps you could
     take over an intranet and find novel ways
     to disseminate information.
   * internal communications. My job is to stay
     plugged in to the development/IT organization
     and report to the sales, marketing, and G&A
     groups. This involves internal training sessions,
     informal discussions, short papers, and the
     like. This is my favorite part of the job.
   * marketing "helper". I write some marcomm 
     materials, provide a lot of background descrip-
     tions, pitch in at tradeshows, etc.
   * NOTE: My experience on this team is probably
     colored by the fact that its a new company
     and my tenure is about the same as the techies.
     That is, no processes or tools for docs/comms
     were already in place. We got to evolve it all
     together.
   * NOTE: I have not written end user documentation,
     in the traditional sense, in over a year at 
     this job. At first I considered this a little
     odd for a technical writer, but then I realized
     that my talents are certainly being used, just
     in a slightly different capacity.

2. Lone writer on an engineering team
   * typical documentation stuff: user guides,
     etc. No surprieses here, I turned out
     end-user documentation.
   * training. Ran the company's training program.
     Taught classes, developed classes, and 
     produced a training guide and workbook.
     At a larger organization, perhaps a writer
     could take on an internal training role. That
     is, a writer, attached to IT, is in a perfect
     position to explain new things to the rest of 
     the company (in our case, the engineering team
     included the developers who released new
     software).
   * technical support and installation support.
     pretty self-explanatory and non-glamorous.
     I worked phone support one day a week, so
     I knew exactly when I was on the hook and so
     the other days weren't disturbed by lots of
     phone calls.

I'm the queen of job reinvention, as some of the above roles will attest. I
think the key is to first assess those non-writing things you enjoy, have a
knack for, and want to learn more about. Then, go looking for those needs
within the company. If that isn't very successful, try finding the holes in
the company first. What could use doing, but no one seems to have the time
to do? Is that even remotely interesting to you? 

Regards,
Meg Golding
SecureWorks, Inc


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