About That Issue of Tech Writers and Business
I've heard from two people, so far, who read something other than what I intended into what I wrote about tech writers and business, so...
I don't assume that tech writers are incompetent or incapable of understanding business issues. Nor do I hold tech writers who come from fine arts or English backgrounds in disdain. (I have a bachelors in English myself.)
I simply believe that too many tech writers just don't want to get involved in the finance side of business, an attitude that holds those writers back from having a more influential role in their companies' operations. If tech writers are going to compete with consultants and outsourcing and offshoring firms, we need to be able to hold our own in business terms during operational discussions. That's it...
Monday, July 27, 2009
Why Tech Writers Need To Understand Business - Yet Another Example...
For some years, people, myself included, have noted the lack of interest, even disdain, that many tech writers have for business issues. This reduces these writers' ability to affect company decisions, including decisions that may affect them.
One area in which this problem manifests itself is finance. Writers from fine arts or English backgrounds can rarely discuss cost-justification in finance terms, so they have little input on buying decisions. Consider the decision to buy a $100K+ CMS. Spending that much money may require formal cost-justification. If the doc group can't provide it, then either the CMS won't get bought or will get bought but under the control of another department that may or may not take the doc group's needs into consideration.
But there are other areas in which ignorance of business can hurt. One, security, was the subject of an article in a recent issue of Business Week (July 27, 2009, "Google's Battle for the Office"). Here's a quick backgrounder...
Google appears to be attacking Microsoft by undercutting Windows and Office. Google's Chrome browser will let users run applications, like word processors, that reside on a server rather than on users' desktops. And Google's application suite, Google Apps, is intended to compete with Office but with the applications also on a server rather than users' desktops. Undercutting Windows and Office would reduce Microsoft's revenue stream and thus weaken Microsoft.
Love or hate Microsoft, there is some benefit to Google's approach and Google is pushing it. The problem, as the Business Week article noted, is security. Google Apps stores files, like word processing documents and spreadsheets, on Google servers rather than on the client companies' own servers. This means the client companies give up control of their proprietary material. Quote Business Week - " For some companies, the arrangement violates security and accounting policies."
Business trumps technology...
For some years, people, myself included, have noted the lack of interest, even disdain, that many tech writers have for business issues. This reduces these writers' ability to affect company decisions, including decisions that may affect them.
One area in which this problem manifests itself is finance. Writers from fine arts or English backgrounds can rarely discuss cost-justification in finance terms, so they have little input on buying decisions. Consider the decision to buy a $100K+ CMS. Spending that much money may require formal cost-justification. If the doc group can't provide it, then either the CMS won't get bought or will get bought but under the control of another department that may or may not take the doc group's needs into consideration.
But there are other areas in which ignorance of business can hurt. One, security, was the subject of an article in a recent issue of Business Week (July 27, 2009, "Google's Battle for the Office"). Here's a quick backgrounder...
Google appears to be attacking Microsoft by undercutting Windows and Office. Google's Chrome browser will let users run applications, like word processors, that reside on a server rather than on users' desktops. And Google's application suite, Google Apps, is intended to compete with Office but with the applications also on a server rather than users' desktops. Undercutting Windows and Office would reduce Microsoft's revenue stream and thus weaken Microsoft.
Love or hate Microsoft, there is some benefit to Google's approach and Google is pushing it. The problem, as the Business Week article noted, is security. Google Apps stores files, like word processing documents and spreadsheets, on Google servers rather than on the client companies' own servers. This means the client companies give up control of their proprietary material. Quote Business Week - " For some companies, the arrangement violates security and accounting policies."
Business trumps technology...
Monday, July 13, 2009
Questions from the July 7-10 Remote Flare 5.2 Course
Re looking for the definition of "inline marker" as an impromptu test of the help's usability... I found it in under a minute by opening the help Search pane, searching for "inline", clicking "inline markers" in the auto-complete panel, opening the first topic - "Frame Contents Window Pane," and scrolling down until I found the two words highlighted. Here's the definition, from the v. 5.2 help...
"...markers for all inline elements in the active topic. You might find this feature useful if you have imported DITA file content. The reason for this is that DITA inline tags are often for semantic purposes, rather than for changing the look of content. By enabling the inline markers feature, it is easy to tell when particular content is using a tag."
The problem here is the need to scroll almost halfway down the topic to find the definition. However, the highlighting helps. So I'd call this pretty usable...
Re looking for the definition of "inline marker" as an impromptu test of the help's usability... I found it in under a minute by opening the help Search pane, searching for "inline", clicking "inline markers" in the auto-complete panel, opening the first topic - "Frame Contents Window Pane," and scrolling down until I found the two words highlighted. Here's the definition, from the v. 5.2 help...
"...markers for all inline elements in the active topic. You might find this feature useful if you have imported DITA file content. The reason for this is that DITA inline tags are often for semantic purposes, rather than for changing the look of content. By enabling the inline markers feature, it is easy to tell when particular content is using a tag."
The problem here is the need to scroll almost halfway down the topic to find the definition. However, the highlighting helps. So I'd call this pretty usable...
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