Fred Ridder wrote: > There *are* some real benefits, but > they tend to be less quantifiable tangible and harder to proove > to managers or business analysts who have to sign off on the > budget and implementation plan. The gains in collaboration and > writing a topic only once, which are generally more demonstrable, > become more significant as the number of writers increases, and > the big cost savings come when you're doing single-sourcing and/or > translation. My point was just that for a single writer producing > documents in a single language with a low degree of single- > sourcing, it will be harder to make a compelling *business* case > for adopting structure.
No, no, no, no, no. You're starting at the wrong end. Data is not created to showcase the talents of technical writers - it's a serious corporate asset. The reason that organizations haven't done more interesting and valuable things like implementing configuration management from requirements right through coding and down to the user documentation is that it has been too hard due to disparate data formats, systems that won't talk to each other and an unwillingness for documentation people to cooperate with each other. Much as I dislike the term "silos", that is precisely what a lot of documentation efforts produce. A structured silo might look nice and work well for the tech writer, but it's still just a silo. Tech writers willing to embrace structure are faced with a unique opportunity to add significant value to the whole organization, but they should not be expected to do it by themselves. In fact, it's unlikely that they would be capable of doing it themselves, any more than a database designer would be capable of putting together elegant documentation. Nonetheless, a tech writer willing to assist with improving corporate-wide data integration is a valuable resource. Is this going to be the easiest path for the tech writer? Nope - it would be far easier just to design nice documentation. Would it be a good career move? Yes, provided your management recognizes the opportunity. Is it good for the organization? Unquestionably - documents are done for. It's information now. Marcus Carr
