Information Mapping

[Richard Dimock <red -at- ELSEGUNDOCA -dot- ATTGIS -dot- COM>]

WHO:
        Don at G.I.T.
        Other techwr-lrs that are curious

INFORMATION MAPPING (R)
COURSE
        Our department put writers through an
        excellent on-site course on Information
        Mapping:

        "Strategies for Developing High Performance
        Documentation", by Robert E. Horn

        Information Mapping, Inc.
        300 Third Avenue
        Waltham, MA 02154
        (800) MAP-4544


WHY:    Information Mapping is a very good way of
        communicating via hardcopy, and especially
        via screen.

WHAT INFORMATION MAPPING IS:

        It uses basic principles that every tech writer
        instinctively understands; it expands upon those
        principles; and it states them very coherently.

        The Writer is taught to organize information
        using simple but effective strategies, BEFORE
        writing the document. This is a MAJOR DEPARTURE
        from our traditional method.

        The result is documentation that communicates
        ***extremely effectively***.

        A secondary product is units of information
        that can be reused in other ways with little
        additional effort.


BEEN THERE, STILL DOING IT

        Our department is phasing Information Mapping
        into our manuals on a gradual basis. New manuals
        are Information Mapped. Existing manuals get the
        treatment where feasible.

        There are ways of implementing it by degrees.

        We are adapting Frame corporate templates to meet
        the I.M. requirements. It works well.

        It DOES take more time at the start, to get used
        to researching and organizing totally, before writing.
        But once that is done, the writing is a breeze.
        The jury is still out on whether it takes longer
        overall.


OPINION:

        This brings our documentation out of the Fifties
        and into the Eighties, fairly painlessly.


_____________________________________________

Dick Dimock,  Artfully Senior Tech Writer
AT&T Global Information Solutions
El Segundo CA