This has been a very busy week for the technical content world.

Author-it 5.5 is released

As you know by now, we released the latest version of Author-it 5.5 to great excitement in the industry. Once again, we’ve redefined the possible in the content authoring and managing world. For more details about what this release includes, click here and then sign up for the free webinar that shows you how the Author-it Reviewer works.

June 1st at 2pm Pacific. As always, if the time or date don’t work for you, sign up anyway to get a link to the recording the next day.

This hour long webinar is a don’t-miss event. We strongly recommend inviting your boss as well. S/he’s going to want to see this. Author-it Reviewer is changing collaborative work forever.

Author-it Learning Center

If you’ve been interested in learning Author-it, we have an option you’re going to love: free, on-demand training.

The Author-it Learning Center includes videos to help you understand the basics of Author-it. You learn what objects are, how to import and author content, and how to customize your outputs.

It’s all online, ready for you to view when you’re ready to learn. Each session is under 15 minutes, making is easy to find the time to learn something new.

Even if you know Author-it, it’s a great way to refresh your skills or review something you may have forgotten. What a great way to get the information you need and move on with your day.

The STC Summit Conference

And finally, this week was the STC Summit Conference. We want to thank the many many people who came by the Author-it booth to find out how our products can make life easier.

150 people wore Author-it tee shirts for the special Apple iPad give away. We talked until we had no voice, gave out chocolate Kiwi Fish, and awarded the iPad to Andrea Wenger.

A great time was had by all, as you can see in the picture below.

I was talking to a friend whose employer has merged with another company. My friend’s company spent the last 5 years clawing its way to supportable and repeatable processes throughout the company as they build software products. If you are familiar with the 5 levels of the Capability Maturity Model, they had finally reached something close to a level 4.

It was hard and they struggled but development, testing, and documentation had stable processes that supported consistently developing products.

Then the merger happened.

Post merger

As they bring the 2 companies together, they are also breaking the company into 2 parts, based on markets. The split is not based on previous company affiliation, but rather on the needs of each vertical market both companies sell into. It makes sense to break it up this way, because the products are related but the needs of each vertical are very different.

This could all be very good, except for one thing: the company they merged with has no actual product development processes.

And that could all work if Company A (my friend’s employer) consumed Company B. But that’s not what’s happening. As they break the companies apart and regroup into 2 separate business units, the processes of each company are staying in place. Those people who are moving into the business unit that was Company A get the existing and stable processes of Company A. Those who are moving into the business unit of what was Company B get all the processes of Company B, which is to say, none.

6 levels of the CMM

My friend and I have thought for years there are actually 6 levels of the CMM. We both discovered this level when we ran our own consulting companies. We also learned to identify and then run away when we first met with these potential clients because nothing good ever happened.

The 6th level is negative 1. Working with a negative 1 level will destroy your processes if you are a contracting company providing outsourcing services, like product documentation. Think of it as entropy.

There is a place for the negative 1 level – three people creating some wild new technology in a garage somewhere can actually benefit from this level because it strongly encourages crazy mad ideas that then get tried. These ideas would be shot down any other place because they are crazy mad ideas. But for these people in that garage, it’s a creative environment that works.

The moment these people move into any level of developing the crazy mad ideas into some actual products, level negative 1 will kill them. Perhaps slowly, perhaps quickly, but entropy will have it’s due.

And how do tools fit in here?

Very often, companies with few to no processes decide the problems they’re having are because they don’t have the right tools. If they got the right tools, they reason, this would all be better.

So they build a feature list.

And they buy new tools.

They don’t bother to train anyone, or set up any Best Practices for using the tools. They just buy them, install them, and then continue on the way they’ve been. And nothing changes, except some vendor somewhere got a nice fat check.

New tools are not feature lists

If you (or your company) are thinking about improving how you do the business of what you do, new tools can help a lot. But new tools also require that you look at your existing processes and be brave enough to change what isn’t working. And something isn’t working if you’re looking to get new tools.

Think of purchasing new tools as a time of reflection for your company. Identify what’s not working in your processes and then find tools that support your efforts to make it work better.

Don’t look for new tools based on a feature list – look for new tools based on the business problems you have and the business solutions you need. When you identify the business issues you need to solve, you’re going to be looking at processes as well. You can’t help it.

After a webinar the other day, I would up chatting in email with a fellow about useful books. So I thought I’d post a list of books I think should be on your bookshelf.

Listed in no particular order:

• Illustrating Computer Documentation: The Art of Presenting Information Graphically on Paper and Online by William Horton

Altho this book was published in 1991, it’s still very relevent today. He covers how to present information visually, especially important for us non-visual learners.

• DITA 101, 2nd edition. by Ann Rockley

Even if you’re not moving to DITA, this book is valuable because it makes you think about how to structure your information to be useful to your readers.

• Information Development: Managing Your Documentation Projects, Portfolio, and People by Joann T. Hackos

I cannot recommend this book enough. She clearly discusses why content is a business asset and how to manage it.

• Single Sourcing: Building Modular Documentation by Kurt Ament

Do you have any to add to the list? What have I missed?

If you didn’t go to the Intelligent Content conference in Palm Springs last week, you really missed out.

I was holding down the booth and talking to people so I didn’t get to much of the sessions but the ones I did attend were great.

And they made me think about where our field is heading.

Content as a business asset

Content is starting to be thought of as the business asset it always has been. It has the potential to inform and educate our customers. This includes our technical content, such as product instructions and knowledge bases.

Additionally, our users are creating content. Think forums, blogs, etc. Some of this content is fantastically useful to our users and needs to be included somehow into the “official” content. How to do that for your specific organization is an interesting question.

The future

Now, if you’re a content development professional, you may be panicking at the thought of your users writing the content and you become a line editor. I think that’s an over-reaction.

I think we are poised to move into part content creator and part community manager. And I think this is a good move. We are not the keepers of all things worth knowing – our users are also very smart people who figure out stuff we didn’t think of. And we should be open to this input.

Additionally, think of all the content you’d love to create if only you had the time. Perhaps your user community can do that for you.

Don’t be afraid

And I admit, this idea can be scary. We’ve worked hard as a profession to be smart and create good content. Some of us still work in organizations where they believe anyone can write so tech comm isn’t anything special. This sounds like that but worse.

That’s why I think our role is going to shift. We still add value – potentially a lot of value – but it’s going to be different value. And it’s up to us to create that new role.

Your thoughts? Do you agree that our role is changing or do you think this is another fad?

I’ve been in this industry a long time and I’ve seen a lot of workflows. I’ve been in the position of:

• Write like crazy, hoping for the best
• Plan every detail to the smallest step
• Not allowed to talk to the developers
• Easy reviews
• No reviews
  • A personal favorite reviewer who would not sign the docs off as accurate if the word “must” appeared any where in the 800 page mainframe manuals. “It sounds like we’re ordering them,” she said.
• And everything else you can imagine

My heroes have always been writers

Because I have no actual life, I was thinking about this as I was walking my tricolor Australian Shepherd over the weekend. During the 2.75 mile brisk walk, I was thinking about all the places where technical documentation goes wrong.

I was also thinking about my duckling engineering students. I’m trying to grow the engineers we all want to work with. This quarter, they seem very passive and helpless. I’m worried that if they don’t show more iniative that they are going to go in the box of “bad reviewers”. I’m worried about other things for them as well, but these were my thoughts.

And that made me start wondering why we get crazed bad reviewers in the first place.

• No one cares? I see such passion in other areas of the product development, so I don’t think that’s all of it.
• The reviewer finally has control over something? In the case of my “must” reviewer, I think that was the case.
• Engineers have a hard time understanding the different audience needs? I see this from some of my ducklings, so that’s part of it, I think.
• Institutional culture? I think sometimes this is the case. I worked at a place where one of the senior dev leads would stop my writers in the hall and spend 10 minutes talking about how what we did was stupid and a waste of company money and not needed. The VP of Dev didn’t think this was out of line. I wanted to do the same to his developers but I’m too nice.

What do you think?

Feel free to share your stories about bad reviewers and why you think it happened. What do you think are the motivations for bad reviewers and bad reviews?

Well, it’s the end of the month and I’m not going to get these results written by the end of the month. I’m shooting for end of Feb now.

The white paper will go into further detail and analysis than I’ve done here.

But the last bit of data I thought I’d share is about industries. In no way was this a scientific survey so please don’t think this shows the larger industry of people.

Software is by far the leader in this parade. I honestly expected more education than we got, but that’s my own bias, I think.

In other news

If you have been wondering how Author-it tools might help in a Technical Publications group, I have a webinar for you.

Feb 2 2011: 8 AM Pacific
Author-it for Technical Publications
This live demo covers using Author-it in multi-person technical publication groups. See the tips and tricks to help your projects stay on track.

If you’re interested in this webinar, even if you can’t attend live, click here to register. If you miss the webinar, a link to the recording will be sent to you the next day.

While I’ll be showing Author-it, I’ll be focusing on workflow and larger groups and how it works in that environment.

Hope to see you there!

One of the things I love about working at Author-it is it’s my job is to show our products and talk to people. I like that because I really think our products are some of the best. Remember, I chose Author-it as the company I wanted to work at, so I showed up liking the products and what was possible.

Towards that, we have a series of webinars that are insanely popular and I’m delighted.

Webinars

We have webinars scheduled out to January at this point. Some of these are about our tools and how they help, some are about other topics.To find out what we have going on, click here.

I strongly urge you to sign up even if the day or time is bad for you. We record the webinars and if you are signed up, you automatically get a link to the recording the next day.

If you are already attending, I want to thank you. These are popular beyond my wildest hopes and it’s because of you all. You’re making me look very good!

Customer feedback

Along with showing products, I talk to users. Not all users are happy people. And strangely, I almost prefer to talk to customers who are not delighted – I get valuable insight.

I’m talking recently with a customer who finds the interface for Author-it less than friendly. I agree that sometimes things are not where I would expect and sometimes the discoverability is less than perfect. But his feedback is helpful and we’re looking at what we can do in the next versions to improve.

I’m also getting feedback based on his workflow. That’s really helpful. One of the many things I’ve learned in nearly 20 years as a professional Tech Comm person is that there are many different workflows and they almost always have a good reason.

A great tool doesn’t force you to change your workflow completely to use it.

A great tool helps you use your existing workflow and improves the places where it was just not working well.

I want our products to be great tools. I want them to help you improve your workflow where you need the improvements. I know where I see ways to improve but why don’t you tell me?

Your input

So, regardless of the tools you’re using, what just doesn’t work in your workflow? Where are you looking to improve so things go better?

One of the things that we tech comm people do is function in a business environment. That means we have a different audience internally with specific needs. We need to meet those needs if we want to function well.

If you have ever asked for a new tool or other “thing” from your boss and it didn’t happen, one of the ways around that is to make a business case. I asked a friend and business associate this week to write about this topic, as he has co-authored several articles about building a business case and has run several workshops on the topic.

Making the business case shows your company that there is a financial reason why you need a new tool, for example.

Here’s Jack.

How to Build a Business Case

The amount of money that is anticipated to be saved or generated as the direct result of an expenditure is known as Return on Investment (ROI).  ROI is usually measured in time and money: how long it will take to recoup the money spent, and how much money will be saved or generated.

When speaking of ROI on a new investment, one states how long it will take to recoup the initial investment via new sales—and then some (profit).

When speaking of ROI on a cost avoidance expenditure, one states how long it will take to recoup the initial expenditure via the money saved.

While it may take years to recoup a large investment, a client of mine in Alameda, CA localized their documentation into so many languages that they reported recouping the cost of purchasing Author-it (through reduced translation costs) in just one product release!

When you build your business case:

• State the problem
• Offer a solution
• State how much it will cost to implement the solution
• State the ROI that could be realized when the solution is implemented

Be sure to state what the problem is for the company, not just for you. The problem is not, “We need a content management system,” the problem is, “We are spending $XX per month more than we need to on translation costs!”

By finding ways to decrease costs and increase profits, you are also showing how you add to the company’s bottom line.

Which, BTW, is a business case for you getting bigger raise come review time, right?

As both a practictioner and teacher of Technical Communication, I fell in love with this blog post: http://www.billalbing.com/2010/08/31/heart-of-technical-communication/

And for a great discussion of some of the issues Bill Albing brings up, see http://idratherbewriting.com/2010/10/19/why-tech-comm-is-a-career-path-of-last-resort-for-students

I have 2 very big dogs. Combined, they weigh more than I do. They’re young dogs, too, so they have a lot of energy and, like all young creatures, they fall over where they are when they get tired.

Typically, they like to fall over near me or my husband, usually me. Which is fine with us – we like them very much and like having them close. We don’t think anything about having a very large pile of very large dogs in the middle of the room. Or right under my feet.

They’re our dogs

However, when people are at our house, inevitably someone comments on the big pile of large dogs in the middle of the room. “Really?” we say. “You think it’s hard to step over/around/between the large dogs to move anywhere in the room? No, you just step over them here and then wind around there and…”

We don’t notice how difficult it is to step over and around the pile of large dogs because it happens all the time. When someone points it out, my husband grouses that we should teach the dogs to lie elsewhere. And then we forget about it until we fall over one of them.

Your dogs

I suspect that you have business content issues that are big dogs spread out in the middle of the floor. You’re used to stepping over and around and sometimes falling. It’s normal to you.

But it doesn’t have to this way. You can still have your dogs and you don’t have to trip over them all the time.

For example, if you’re trying to manage business documents in Word, you (or your content developers) know you as a company spend roughly 50% of the time trying to make Word do that which it’s not designed to do.

Don’t believe me? Go ask. I’ll wait.

Reusing content is called copying and pasting in your company. And when things get out of synchronization, you call it normal and hope the auditors don’t notice.

Repurposing content in your company is also called copying and pasting. No one likes doing it so a lot of content is simply not available to the people who need it.

Does this keep you awake at night?

If you’re responsible for business content in your company – maybe you’re an author, a director, or a C-level person – this should be keeping you up at night.

When is the lawsuit going to hit because you shipped some critical document that was wrong? When are the regulators going to ask for your Gulf of Mexico disaster plan and you discover it includes removing and caring for walruses? Who haven’t lived in the Gulf for 200 million years?

This “process” is also costing you a lot of money. If you’re paying your people up to 50% of their salary to fight Word, then what are you doing? That means you pay 4 people to do the work of 2. 8 people to do the work of 4. And so on.

Is your company doing so well financially that you can afford to waste this much money? How much more could your company do if you (or that team) could be twice as productive?

It doesn’t have to be this way. Many tools will help. I have a preference.

Contact us to find out just how we can help. We can probably get your RIO in the first 6 months. Seriously.