RE: Structuring Tech Pubs

["Turner, Will" <Will_Turner@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I have been in tech writing departments that have been part of Marketing,
Engineering, and Support departments. Writers in a small organization need
to be versatile, ready to help with or take over others' responsibilities
when needed. To do this, it is valuable to have some role in all projects,
such as contributing as peer editors. 

Having each person charged with becoming expert in a particular tool or tool
category (e.g., one expert in FrameMaker, another in graphics tools, another
in online development, etc.) helps to raise the communal knowledge base, and
it also fosters the communication and cooperation that are necessary to
maintain the necessary versatility. This knowledge base development works
best when writers and course developers are in the same department, called
things like "Performance Support", "Information Development", or
"Educational Services". 

My preference is to put the department under Marketing, for several reasons.
Tech writers and marcom folks can more easily cooperate to leverage each
others' material, especially in our brave new world of seamlessly linked
online content. In writing about the product, tech writers generally learn
the kind of comprehensive information about it that marcom folks also need
to know. And, Marketing theoretically learns from the user base what users
want, so tech writers and course developers can tune their information
content to those needs. Good product design depends on product requirements
being generated from Marketing. Since good tech writers and course
developers are trained in user interface design, they can contribute more
directly to the wish list produced by Marketing when they are part of the
group.

--Will


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