Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Engaging User Documentation

One of the words that technical communicators should have in their vocabulary is Engage. Because the word also means to "become involved." In reality, many technical writers refuse to get "actively" involved with the project teams and refuse to accept responsibility for mistakes on their part. A few even consider
themselves as "individual contributors" in a team.

Technical writers cannot sit before the desktops and imagine that everything—information, reference documents, software build, and so on—will reach them automatically. They cannot simply shift the blame for incorrect information or missing information in their documents to someone else. For technical writers of any level, engaging themselves with the project team is the most crucial aspect. This may require lots of legwork, casual chat, and intent to even befriend a few team members.

The primary benefit of such an interaction is more or less complete documentation of the software and feature developed. Even though project managers may not be that keen to interact with technical writers, there are others with whom the technical writers can get involved. It is this healthy involvement of technical writers with software developers, testers, and SMEs that will enhance the reputation of the technical writer and improve the understanding of the work a technical writer does. Technical writers would also benefit in understanding the functionality properly and get a holistic view by engaging fully with the team, and not just with the SME.

This kind of "internal networking" will benefit a technical writer in multiple ways. As mentioned earlier, a good engagement works wonders for preparing a complete and proper documentation. It also helps the technical writer to understand the software and the domain in a better manner. It also drives a technical writer to provide feedback, ask questions from the user perspective, and even don the role of a tester at times. Some of the feedback or queries raised can even become a critical issue or priority task for the development team.

A successful engagement will gradually increase the flow of information to the technical writer. People, who earlier refused to divulge information, will open up and provide tidbits of information that will aid the technical writer to write better documentation. For those looking for everything to arrive at their desks, technical
writing is not the best profession.

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