TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
I'd like to jump into the conversation here and float my own idea for
the combination tech and marcomm. My company makes (stop me if you've
heard this before) Warehouse Management Software, and the biggest
problem we have with our users is not, at its root, that they forget
how to use the features, or even that they don't know why they want
these features. Our software is designed assuming that they will
manage their warehouse in a particular way. Some of them do not manage
like we assume. We have done some considerable adding of features to
satisfy them, but even when we add the features that we designed for
specific customers, those specific customers do not always use them.
It's frustrating for the designers, to say the least, and frustrating
for the accountants, that we have invested so much developer/designer
time in something that did not improve customer happiness.
My idea is to (what else?) solve the problem with documentation, since
we have at this point failed at the user-analysis stage of software
design. I envision a big book that contains all the "how to use
feature X" documentation, but that is basically an instruction manual
on the Company X method of warehouse management.
Has anyone tried this sort of combination marcomm, tech documentation,
and process documentation? Does the Rational company have this sort of
book? (As I understand the Rational stuff, they sell both a method and
the software to manage the method, right?)
Just wondering. I mean, my company's going under before I'll *ever*
get the chance to do this. But maybe my next company can use the idea.
Kirsten Zerbinis
-struggling to stay motivated when she's writing product literature for
a company whose last sales guy quit in disgust
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Order RoboHelp X3 and receive a $100 mail-in rebate, plus FREE
RoboScreenCapture, WebHelp Merge Module and iMarkupSoftware, for a total
giveaway value of $473! Order here: http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l
Help celebrate TECHWR-L's 10th Anniversary starting this month!
Check out the contests at http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/special/contests/
Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday TECHWR-L....
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
