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Maybe I can enlighten this subject. Some general background information
first. I've had several contracts at Boeing as a tech writer. I have not
worked for the department being discussed, but my experince might give some
clues to what happens.
I was a contract tech writer with the Shared Services Group (SSG) - Writing
& Editing until the massive Boeing layoffs after 9/11. Writing & Editing
went from127 to 25 in the department in the first round of layoffs. First,
100% of my time was subcontracted to document the enterprise deployment of
Windows 2000 and its APIs. After the release, the percentages and
departments changed as the needs changed until the layoffs.
Theoretically, the other Boeing Groups (9 in all) are supposed to contract
with SSG for services that have a universal need, such as printing, copying,
and technical writing. In practice, it doesn't happen that way. Many
departments have "technical writers" under different job titles. A classmate
in a Master's class worked at Boeing. She was doing a tech writer's job but
without the title. She didn't want the title because "tech writers are the
first laid off."
On my first Boeing assignment, I was the tech writer on a software
development team for a Specifications and Publication (SpecPubs) project.
The original project was canceled by the end users, then our team drove out
a business case in two weeks that the end users approved. The competition to
SpecPubs was a project that used C and FrameMaker to publish manuals.
Whether this is the "tech writers" that are being outsouced, I don't know;
but neither SpecPubs or the C/FrameMaker group were part of SSG Writing &
Editing. Both were writing and publication groups internal to other
departments.
> And how much of the blame falls squarely on the shoulders of Boeing
Techwriters
> and Managers?
With the general information about how tech writing/publications is done at
Boeing, I can answer this question easily. The BLAME falls on both
shoulders: tech writers and managers/management.
1. I've talked about 3 different groups, and the classmate was the 4th
group. Why does a company have multiple writing departments? The more you
have the more difficult to have quality control.
2. While I was subcontracted on the first Writing & Editing assignment, the
project's 2nd level manager didn't have a clue what tech writers did.
Once he said to me, "Any of the developers can write the documentation. They
all have college degrees." Don't laugh! He really said that. And from his
perspective as a MBA, anyone who had a college degree obviously had to have
written college papers. Yet I had just been in a Master's Computer Science
class where the teacher had asked the question, "How many of you have never
written a research paper?" Five hands went up. When I shared this, he told
he he didn't believe me. What can I say? His mind was made up. All he was
concerned with was the accounting bottomline figure. Tech writers are an
expense; get rid of the expense.
I do have to say the PM of the project was not in agreement with him. She
knew the importance of a tech writer and attempted to provide that by
bringing in a writer under a different job title. Catch 22!
3. The three-way contract between the project, the Writing & Editing group,
and myself caused problems. The Writing & Editing manager was not aware that
there was no document/version controls, totally different documentation
methods for various APIs, or approved templates being used by the project
prior to my arrival. The project manager didn't see the dollar value of
technical writing and wasn't open to examples of effectiveness. My job was
to fulfill whatever they contracted. When contract renewal negotiations
began, Writing & Editing didn't understand the 2nd level manager's attitude
about the bottomline and anyone being able to produce "pretty documents" (an
actual quote).
I don't want to give the impression that Writing & Editing was ineffective.
This 3-way contract arrangement has been very effective with other groups.
It could have been effective here given time to work out the
miscommunications, except for the constant pressure from upper management to
cut costs.
>Wow, I hope no one from Boeing is reading this thread. It's a
knife-twister.
Yup, I agree! It's a knife-twister. Outsoucsing jobs is nasty. However, the
whole picture needs to be understood to be fair to Boeing. There isn't just
one department that produces documentation. There are lots and many are
competing against each other. There are many technical writers under other
job titles at Boeing.
Also not all Boeing managers are clueless about the benefit of technical
writers. With another group, I had produced a presentation for two VPs for
upper management in Chicago. After the presentation, those two VPs gave me
Boeing's equalivant of special accommodations and a Boeing lighted pen for
the job I did for them. Even more important as far as I'm concerned, they
told my Writing & Editing managers "that is why we hire techncial writers"
to make communications clear.
Of course it didn't stop the layoffs, but is does make your ego feel better.
Diane
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