Marcus, Marcus, Marcus. In the abstract, I completely agree with what you say. My postings in this thread, though, have been written to address the specific context of the original poster, who is a sole writer at a company which has a significant body of unstructured documentation, and who is thinking about experimenting with structure. As you say, the kind of far-reaching information integration you are talking about requires disciplines and resources that span the entire company, and that simly didn't seem like a possibility in the context of the OP's query.
>From: mcarr at allette.com.au >To: framers at lists.frameusers.com >Subject: RE: structured Frame >Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2007 22:44:13 +1000 (EST) > > >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 >_______________________________________________ > > >You are currently subscribed to Framers as DocuDoc at hotmail.com. > >Send list messages to framers at lists.frameusers.com. > >To unsubscribe send a blank email to >framers-unsubscribe at lists.frameusers.com >or visit >http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/docudoc%40hotmail.com > >Send administrative questions to listadmin at frameusers.com. Visit >http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info. _________________________________________________________________ Share your special parenting moments! http://www.reallivemoms.com?ocid=TXT_TAGHM&loc=us
