RE: Desiging your Documentation/Writing Department

["Jones, Donna" <DJones -at- zebra -dot- com>]

>  Elizabeth J. Allen said, "I would scrap the entire
> writing department and integrate the technical writers into the
> engineering/development teams. I firmly believe that tech writers need
to
> be embedded within their functional groups, not set apart like a
display
> at the zoo. "
>
Arroxane replied:
>  That doesn't work if the writers are responsible for more than one
area.


I agree. In some environments, Elizabeth's idea would work, but it
doesn't at Zebra's Chicagoland office because it's rare for one of us to
be working on a single project. I would have to have at least four desks
if I was to sit among the engineering/development teams that I work
with, and they'd have to keep moving those desks around as some projects
started and others ended. And where would our editor and graphic artist
sit? Or would they be eliminated if we weren't a separate department?

I think we have the perfect setup for our environment. We have two
adjoining quads (each person has a corner with his/her back to the
middle), which can seat up to eight people. Because people in our group
sit together, we're able to work with and learn from each other much
more easily than if we were spread out. Plus I've seen how writers who
are embedded among the engineers tend to go off and do their own thing
without regard to what other writers in the company are doing. Sitting
together makes that a bit more difficult (though not impossible) to do.

Donna
 
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