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Subject:Re: Creating a Documentation Department From:"Susan W. Gallagher" <sgallagher5 -at- cox -dot- net> To:Dallas Trainer <las_inbox -at- hotmail -dot- com>, techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Date:Fri, 26 Jan 2007 16:19:11 -0500
First order of business, buy these two books:
Starting a Documentation Group by Peter Hartman
Managing Your Documentation Projects by Joann Hackos
Peter's book pretty much *is* a checklist, and Joann's book has lots of information on process and scheduling (among other things).
Second, create a documentation plan template - someplace to state what the doc is about, who the target audience is, what methodology you're using (minimalism, infomapping, ...), what the deliverables are, and what the structure is (the outline goes here). Fill one out at the start of every project and circulate it to the lead devs, product managers, and other parties with vested interest in the stuff your department produces.
Third, schedule a series of recurring meetings with your group to iron out style guide issues -- do you say "click" or "click on"? Is cancelled spelled with one l or two? Does your procedure intro say "following" or "below". Advise your writers to jot down their questions and discuss them at the meetings until you have a usable style guide.
...and by the time you're finished with all that, you'll be well on your way! Best of luck!
-Sue Gallagher
---- Dallas Trainer <las_inbox -at- hotmail -dot- com> wrote:
> In about a week, I will be starting as lead tech writer at a company with a
> product that has customers but no user documentation. My group will be small
> (myself and maybe two other tech writers), and we will be tasked with
> creating user manuals, online help (Robohelp), and eventually, Camtasia- or
> Captivate-based tutorials for remote users of the product. Obviously, this
> won't all happen overnight.
>
> I am being tasked with taking the lead in getting the department on its
> feet. I will be talking to management to determine the priorities, as far as
> media, which pieces of the product are most in need of immediate
> documentation, and so on.
>
> As I've been a tech writer before, but not tasked with starting a department
> from scratch, I am looking for things I don't have in my toolkit, such as:
<snip>
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