Articles

Producing technical documentation - Part 2

By Colin P Dunbar

Who affects documentation production

As mentioned previously, it is important that the documentation production plan be made known to the other members of the production cycle. If it is not known, the technical personnel will not be aware of their role in the cycle.

If for instance, the technical writer requires source material or needs to do research with a specific engineer or developer, that person must either make the source material available, or be available to answer the writer's questions.

If, as often occurs, the technical persons do not have the time to accommodate the writer, the result will be delays in the production of the documentation. . An efficient method to work around this is to implement a system (during the preparation stage) of advising all the suppliers of source material approximately when they will be contacted, and if possible what information will be required from them.

Departments or persons that have a direct influence on effective production are, amongst others:

• Managers
• Engineers
• Developers
• Draughts persons
• Technicians

It can occur that a department, instead of a single person, will be responsible for making source material available. Depending on the type of documentation and the size of the project, all the persons listed above will need to contribute effectively to the production cycle. If this occurs, one person should be given the responsibility of being the coordinator for the supply of the source material.

This practice though is not recommended, without careful assistance from the writer, as it is always more cost-effective and productive to have the writer conduct his own research. When non-documentation persons are required to make source material available, this usually results in delays.

Understandably, a technician feels he is employed to perform the duties for which he was trained, not to help someone else to do his job. Often persons are surprised at the time involved to do research, and what exactly is involved in producing technical documentation.

The decision makers in the majority of commercial organisations have no knowledge of the principles or procedures of technical documentation, and as a result are not interested. This is largely due to no fault of their own, but rather due to the policy of the organisation, towards documentation. It is an unfortunate fact that most commercial organisations regard documentation as a "nice to have" luxury that they can do without.

Next: Who should conduct the research?

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