Technical CommunicationAnupama Gummaraju

- as a service in the IT consulting industry

In this Presentation

Why define technical writing / technical communication as a service?

Attempt to define the scope of the service

Service defined – what next?

ChallengesExternal to your organization

Internal to your organization

Meeting the challengesInternal approach, first

External facing issues, second

Why define a service?

The context

Major outsourcing trend has begun, to countries like India

Increase in client base

Clients’ needs are diverse, fast-changing

They requireSpeed of response

Execution readiness from documentation teams

Process maturity

Knowledge of diverse authoring tools to serve a wide client-base

Domain knowledge & knowledge about services companies in the market

Technical writing service units can be enabled to address these needs

Attempt to define the scope of the service

What is a technical communication service?

An independent unit that provides services likeDeveloping / preparing / delivering technical/user documentation

Editing

Reviewing

Packaging and publishing (online and print)

Consultation on document development strategy

Consultation on documentation/publishing process

Developing training material

Training

L10N services

An integral part of a services organizationThat does all of the above

A service within an organization that seeks to

Become a key player in delivering what the organization delivers

Contribute to the organization’s bottomline

Attempt to define the scope of the service

A business that is driven by

A plan

Goals

Targets

Service defined – What next?

As a group of professionals, how can you address client and organizational needs?

We need to

Understand the challenges both internal to the organization and to the client

Identify ways of meeting them

Actionize

Track

Collate data for re-use, repeatability of success

Not detailed in this presentation

Challenges

External to the organization

Established companies looking for partnership

To expand team size

To see quick resource ramp up

To see capable program management

Established companies looking for cost savings

Along with process improvements

Clients looking for end-to-end solutions

Documentation authoring including technical specs, design documents, system documentation, user documentation, activities related to the “user experience”

Clients looking for “Consulting”

Study legacy systems, do a gap analysis, do a process analysis, suggest take-over strategy, productivity or process improvements

Challenges continued

Internal to the organization

Our premise

A documentation/technical writing/communications dept. exists

If the premise is wrong:

Where do we fit in the organization’s structure?

Diverse project needs across the organization’s units

Diverse proposal needs across the business development units

Multi-locational staffing

Understanding the organization’s delivery model

Making yourself a known, value-adding entity

Being the differentiator for your projects/clients

PROVING that you can be a differentiator

Meeting the challenges

Identify

What you can do for the organization NOT what the organization can do for you

State what services you can provide,

sit back and wait for work

to come your way

Pick up the organization’s service delivery model

See where you can contribute

Get the required ammo in place

Convince them how you can make their service a better one

It is all about

being in a state of

READINESS

A few pointers follow on how…

Start thinking DELIVERY - talk their language

Position yourself

Not as a unit that offers a particular service

As a unit that offers what projects need to achieve the best results

Enable yourself in:

Fitting in documentation proposals within the organization’s RFP response

Meeting the challenges - Internally

• Overview of your group and services

• What is in scope / out of scope

• Authoring software used

• Image editing software used

• Proposed methodology in brief

• Effort estimate details

• Change management process

• Assumptions

• Risks and mitigation plans

• Operational details

Artifact

Enable yourself in:

Project planning

• Have an MS project template that you can use to quickly plan

– Scheduling

Effort estimation

• Document an effort estimate template / use what is available off the net

Meeting the challenges – Internally continued

Know the organization’s proposal templates, staffing templates, costing calculation templates and how to use them

Artifact

Artifact

Enable yourself in:

Staffing / matching skill sets with project needs

• Database of resources, skill sets categorized by competency level

Costing

• Define your rates: Onsite and offshore rates

• Hourly/daily/per page

• Rates for different roles of writers, like junior, senior, or team lead roles

Have case studies ready

Artifact

Artifact

Meeting the challenges – Internally continued

Artifact

Understand how delivery works and partner with them

Meeting the challenges – Internally continued

Integrate the documentation service into your organization’s service offering

By processes

By systems

By networking

By selling

Ensure that your partnership starts at the ideal entry point

To make a case: do your research

Reference: Measuring the Value Added by Technical Documentation, A Review of Research and Practice, Jay Mead, Technical Communication, Volume 45

Map the responsibilities to a career path, like delivery

All this will bringing you in synch with the organization’s delivery model

Define a methodology

Document that covers the methodology to develop printed, online, online c-s help

Map the output for each stage

Scope document, project plan

Templates, Table of Contents

Drafts

Defects log

Packaged deliverable

Sign-off

Updated drafts

Comprehensive to include

Analysis & Planning

Design

Document Development

Production and Delivery

Deploy

Update

Maintain

Meeting the challenges – Externally continued

Artifact

Define

Delivery model in synch with the organization’s delivery model

Offshore, Offshore + Onsite, Onsite moving completely offshore

Meeting the challenges – Externally continued

Artifact

Artifact

Staffing plans

Document how you staff projects

Example: Constant team, Ramp-up, ramp-off team

Guidelines

Peer Review checklists, Engineering review checklists,

Editorial review checklists, Production checklists

Processes

DDLC in step with the SDLC or end-to-end services map

Define

Guidelines that will help you quickly arrive at ballpark effort estimates, staffing estimates and costing

Document an effort estimate template / use what is available off the net

Meeting the challenges – Externally continued

Artifact

Artifact

Documentation standards document, reference a well known one that you followCompany Style Guide, Referenced Style Guide like MS Guide

Enabling at various levels

Responsibilities chart that outlines these Roles document

Equip writers to think as consultants

Artifact

As senior writers/team leads – within your team

Map the responsibilities to a career path

Identify and always have a skill set base for quick reference

Plan training based on this information

Ensure that the team has some basic training in the more popular HATs

Identify people/teams who can draft the artifacts, track them to closure

Motivate and set a career path

As senior writers/team leads – within the organization

Enabling at various levels continued

Network with project teams, business development managers, quality teams

Identify systems and processes that you can modify in favor of technical communication

Prepare and distribute kits that managers can use to sell your service

Identify and always have a skill set base for quick reference

Enabling at various levels continued

Know the challenges

Enable yourself by learning the tools and concepts

Offer to author the documents and standards that your organization needs

Build capabilities to address all the challenges mentioned

As writers/team members

Questions?

Thank you