Introduction
Times have changed! Most grandparents hardly struggle with cell phones today. Parents are active members of social networking sites and at times, share friends with us. Domestic help asks for a phone reminder to get bread, next morning. Well, life without mobile phones is history!
Long[...]
Continue Reading →
Archive for the ‘WriteManager’ Category
December, 2011 § in Lounge, WriteManager
Smartphones Smarter with Assistance
December, 2011 § in Lounge, WriteManager
Who should manage a government portal? You!
Rachel
Recently I was asked this question in an interview: ‘Who should manage a government portal; IT people, marketing people or the content team?’
Turf wars have been fought over this ever since the Web first appeared, but the question never goes away. Ownership and management of any large we[...]
Continue Reading →
Decoding Science Writing
Manjula Kandula
Dolly, the world’s first cloned sheep was born on 5 July 1996. It was an epoch-making milestone in science and opened the door to understanding creation. Noted science journalist Gina Kolata broke the news nationally in The New York Times and was the first reporter to speak with D[...]
Continue Reading →
November, 2011 § in WriteManager
Effectiveness Workflow for a Technical Writer
By Aisoorya Vijayakumar
I can almost read for certain the thought that runs on your mind as you are reading this – “Alright! Here’s another nagging post on how I need to start and get on with my documentation…!” I would have empathized, and on a sunny day, even applauded you [...]
Continue Reading →
November, 2011 § in WriteManager
Publish-As-You-Write Model for Documentation
By Bindu Nayar
A Reality Check
So at what stage in the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) does documentation get done? If you said “right at the start”, then your organization is unique. The fact is that no matter how much we propound the benefits documentation presents to our cus[...]
Continue Reading →
November, 2011 § in WriteManager
Quick QAs – Digital Rights Management
By Makarand Pandit
What exactly is Digital Rights Management or DRM? Why is it needed?
Digital Rights Management (DRM) is a collective term. It refers to access control technologies for managing rights of content in digital form.
Internet makes it easy to publish and distribute content. Different[...]
Continue Reading →
November, 2011 § in Lounge, WriteManager
When Worlds Collide: Understanding How Documentation and Translation Processes Affect Each Other
By Kit Brown-Hoekstra
Companies that successfully integrate translation into the documentation and product development process reap the financial benefits of simultaneous global releases, high quality products that meet the needs of all their customers, regardless of locale, and improved percep[...]
Continue Reading →
September, 2011 § in WriteManager, WriteRight
Developing documentation for agile
- Manjusha Nair
In earlier articles in this series, we have planned for our agile project, and we have gathered the requirements. Are you still wondering how we can actually write for agile? If you wonder how we can develop documentation that is release quality and free of errors, in just a couple [...]
Continue Reading →
July, 2011 § in Lounge, WriteManager
Technical communication trends: How we can meet the challenges
By Larry Kunz
We are part of a profession that is undergoing rapid change. Several trends, spurred on by advances in technology and by the world economy, affect us. We need to understand what these trends mean to us as professionals, and we need to recognize how we can influence these trends.
The [...]
Continue Reading →
July, 2011 § in WriteManager
Being a Contract Technical Writer
By Lori Sanders
I’ve been a Technical Writer for 12 years, and I’ve spent about half that time overall as a contractor/consultant. While contracting lacks the job stability, security, and benefits that permanent employment can offer, there are many reasons why being a contractor is desirable [...]
Continue Reading →
July, 2011 § in TechTools, WriteManager
Design Considerations in Web Development
By Kris Weylo
When you design, create and deploy websites, the following design considerations can be factored into your web development cycle:
1.1 Technical issues
A simple website created with a few HTML pages and content is usually quite easy to develop and maintain. When more functionality[...]
Continue Reading →
July, 2011 § in WriteManager, WriteRight
Requirements Gathering for Agile
By Manjusha Nair
As technical writers, we rely heavily on design documents and prototypes to get an understanding of the product/software; the absence of this basic arsenal can stump the best of writers. But there are alternatives…
We discussed in the last article how agile does not follow any p[...]
Continue Reading →
July, 2011 § in Lounge, WriteManager
Technical Communicators as Heuristics Reviewers
By Devika Ganapathy
A few years ago, I worked as a usability specialist at a large technology and services company based in Bangalore. The design unit at this company comprised a large team of nearly a 100 people – mainly interaction designers, but also several visual designers, information a[...]
Continue Reading →
May, 2011 § in WriteManager
Applying Lean Six-Sigma Principles to Documentation
With much accelerated demands in the global market place for customer-centric solutions, Customer Experience (CE) has become the buzz word that floats around most boardrooms and corporate training rooms. One methodology you might hear associated with CE is Lean Six Sigma (LSS). While CE directly fo[...]
Continue Reading →
April, 2011 § in WriteManager
Planning for AGILE
Agile has become a popular and widely practised method of software development that it is here to stay. Since agile development is so different from traditional software development methodologies, technical communicators need to adapt to keep up with the pace and style of agile development.
HOW DOE[...]
Continue Reading →
April, 2011 § in Lounge, WriteManager
Essential skills for Technical Writers in 2011
When I was a science journalist earlier on in my career, a good friend invited me to join a leading software company as a technical editor. I began to weigh the pros and cons of staying or leaving the Fourth Estate.
I reasoned to myself that being part of the Press was challenging and offered me [.[...]
Continue Reading →
February, 2011 § in WriteManager
Working with Cross-Cultural Documentation Teams
Irma Humby
Documentation Manager
As I sit sipping my latte in the Global Peace Factory café in Frisco, Texas, accessing their free wireless network, I realize how truly amazing the internet is, and how much it has changed the way we live in this place we call Earth.
When I started as a technical w[...]
Continue Reading →
February, 2011 § in Lounge, WriteManager
Gone in Sixty Seconds?
Anindita Basu
Sixty seconds is what Nicolas Cage got to steal a car. You get less than 60 seconds to steal the attention of your readers and get them on to your help page. The first 10 words on any page take less than 10 seconds to read and understand, and those words are the ones [...][...]
Continue Reading →
June, 2010 § in WriteManager
Managing Engineering Writers
– Ankur Srivastava
Technical Writers are people – We just need to manage people.
I happened to manage a team of content writers first and then technical writers. I am using ‘happened’ in my statement as I entered into this role by chance way back in year 2000. Technical Writing was not[...]
Continue Reading →
April, 2010 § in WriteManager
Dealing With It!
– Manoj Bokil
All of us deal with a lot of situations in life, some good, and some not so good. Peaks and valleys, crests and troughs, ebbs and flows… get the gist? Good! In my technical communication career, I have seen many Information Development departments (just like any other de[...]
Continue Reading →
