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SIG Manager’s Column |
A Call for Help |
One of the roles of a SIG Manager is to be a point person for questions related to the SIG’s area of interest. Many questions are administrative in nature; however, every so often a question comes up that, in my opinion, requires input from other SIG members. One example of this type of question has to do with how technical writers can integrate quality practices into what they do even though the companies they work for will not support these practices. For example, consider this email (paraphrased at the sender’s request). “I hope you can help me with this problem. I am part of a small group of tech writers at a company that develops software for the medical field. Given our field, we are concerned with the quality of what we produce. However, it seems like we are never able to do anything but publish the documentation. The company is small, so their development process is, shall we say, iffy at best. The system designs and screens change at the last minute, and we are always in crisis mode to finish the product documentation by the release deadline. The focus is to get the product out the door whatever it takes. There must be other writers out there in this situation. How do they cope? Can we expect to change the way things are done here? Where do we start?” This is a most difficult question, and one I am hoping you can help me answer. If you have advice or suggestions for this writer, please send them to me at rupel@accessus.net. I would like to publish them in the next newsletter issue. |
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About the Author: Robbie Rupel, STC Senior Member and president of the St. Louis Chapter, is the Team Leader for the Information Development group at Edward Jones (the financial investment firm) located in St. Louis, Missouri. |