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.
Subject:Re: Technical Writers per Developer From:porbeton <porbeton -at- TIAC -dot- NET> Date:Tue, 17 Jan 1995 00:37:12 GMT
Chris -
The ratio often depends on the type of development organization being
supported. Application software development has a higher ratio (7:1
is typical) than systems software (4:1 is typical). Another factor is
the role of the writer - some companies use the writer to "clean up" an
engineer's draft. This results in higher ratios. If writers are in
place to produce functional specifications, test and document with
pre-release software, etc. the ratios are lower.
Regards
Chris Grierson <ab703 -at- dayton -dot- wright -dot- edu> wrote:
> The Technical Communications Department here is interested in determining
> some kind of "standard" or accepted figure for the number of technical
> writers that a company should have per developer. The Society for
> Technical Communications was unable to help, and a search of the
> literature did not produce any results. Any numbers from other
> organizations, or any ideas on how to find this data would be appreciated.
> Chris Grierson
> Information Analyst
> LEXIS-NEXIS
> ugriecn -at- meaddata -dot- com