Technical Writing
In many companies, technical writing is still a respected, well-funded, and autonomous transverse function. Typically composed of a documentation manager, senior and junior technical writers and an editor, the documentation department is charged with producing high-quality technical documentation and online help in support of the company's products.
Elsewhere, however, technical writing has fallen victim to cost cutting. Many technical writers are now directly attached to development teams (no more documentation manager) or perform their own peer reviews (no more editor). Other firms have gone further by outsourcing technical writing itself to non-native speakers in low-cost countries such as India or the Philippines, or even by eliminating the technical writing function altogether and instead delegating the task to developers or test engineers.
The result is predictable: badly formatted and poorly structured documentation that is full of technical, grammatical, and typographical errors.
What the cost cutters have forgotten is that customers' first impressions of a company often come from reading an installation guide or using online help. And if this is full of errors, they will probably conclude that the company's software or products are too, because they will (usually correctly) assume that the cost cutting has extended to recruitment, research, training, testing, and quality control.
Poor documentation, poor products!
The truth is, technical documentation is a key component of any company's brand identity, and improving its quality will improve your corporate image and attract customers.
Our technical writing service can help by:
- Delivering high-quality technical documentation
- Peer reviewing, editing, or proof-reading existing documents
- Working with you to achieve internal cost savings by improving productivity.
