It’s not Black Friday, but perhaps we can call it Grey Tuesday. As part of Cherryleaf’s 10th anniversary celebrations, we’ve created five 25% discount coupons for our popular Technical Author basic/induction online training course. The first five customers to use coupon code 09E2C3D43D when ordering the online course, will receive the 25% discount.
Note: This offer is limited to one per customer.
As they say, order now to avoid disappointment.
In Data Quality Pro Journal, Dylan Jones interviews Ellis Pratt, Director at Cherryleaf, about how to improve Healthcare data quality through policy and procedure management. According to Dylan,
“One of the single most common root-causes of poor information quality is outdated documentation and a lack of governance in the way policies and procedures are managed. Nowhere is this more critical than in the healthcare sector.”
Ellis shares a range of practical techniques and methods to help improve policy and procedure documentation within the healthcare sector.
Article – How to improve Healthcare data quality through policy and procedure management.
See also:
This Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators (ISTC) has today accredited our £175 Technical author basic/induction training course. As this is an independent assessment of its quality, we’re delighted to have this course accreditation.
The ISTC’s reviewers provided us with a lot of feedback. This was more than a paper exercise and Technical Authors are never shy in making suggestions and comments to their peers. In light of some of the comments, we’ve tweaked some of the copy on the Web page . We’ve explained this is a course for people working in IT, rather than those working on planes, trains and automobiles type projects. They also picked up that we’d mentioned “Agile” and “User Assistance” in a module without explaining them – a fair point. There were other discussions, such as, should we have mentioned any documentation standards? If so, which one?
The course modules remain unaltered, although we have useful suggestions to implement whenever the course is revised.
We have a number of projects running at the moment that involve us improving organisations’ policy and procedures documents. It may not seem likely, but these projects are enormous fun.
The best analogy I can find is that it’s like rearranging someone else’s record collection. Or in a more modern setting, it’s like creating a playlist from someone else’s mp3 files. Everything ends up in order, or as Hans Christian Anderson said, “everything in the right place”.
The trick with policy and procedures documents is to break them in to small chunks of information, each of them preceded by a heading that describes the topic. The key factor is: each topic must only contain the information described by the heading. This activity results in the equivalent of a big bag of lego bricks – giving you, as your next step, the pleasant task of connecting and arranging all these topics into the right order.
To work in this modular, object, based way it’s best to avoid tools that take a more linear approach, such as Microsoft Word. We’d recommend, instead, you use a ‘modular’ authoring tool that enables you to generate a Word or PDF document once you’ve finished.
One of the most popular developments in computing in recent years has been the emergence of cloud-based computing and Software as a Service (SaaS). Examples of cloud-based computing include Google’s GMail: Instead of an application being installed locally on a user’s computer, it runs on a remote server, accessed via the user’s Web browser.
So is technical writing likely to move to the Cloud? Let’s look at the different approaches.
There are a number of reasons why a Technical Author might want to use a cloud-based application. The first reason is cost. Instead of purchasing an application, cloud-based applications are typically offered on a monthly fee basis. If you’re looking to move to a DITA authoring environment, this spreading of costs could prove an attractive alternative to the upfront costs associated with buying a DITA solution.
There are other reasons, why you might also consider moving to a cloud-based solution:
You don’t necessarily need to move to a cloud-based environment, if you want to have remote workers and/or collaborative authoring. The most popular authoring tools, such as RoboHelp, FrameMaker and Flare, use a check in/out model instead of a cloud-based approach. Writers can “check out” a topic from a project and work on it remotely. They can then “check in” the completed topic back into the project, via email or SharePoint.
Your authors will all need to have the Help Authoring Tool on their computers, and you cannot watch them as they write, but it’s worth considering.
If you’re looking for a SaaS authoring tool, then there are a number to consider:
You’re usually unable to add any additional plugins, which you’d be able to do if the software was installed on your computers or servers.
You may also need to consider where your data is actually being stored. Data privacy rules differ in the USA and the European Union – the USA’s Patriot Act, for example.
Some organisations simply add remote workers to their existing network. The organisation has its own private cloud, a Virtual Private Network (VPN). Typically, it’s up to the IT department as to whether a remote user will be given access to a system. You may need to acquire licences, and you may need to wait for IT to set this all up for you.
An alternative approach is to create a private cloud for your own department. You can create a server in the Cloud, using Amazon’s EC2 service, or using alternatives from companies such as RackSpace or Microsoft (Azure). On this server, you could install for example, a customised version of the Authoring application (containing all the plugins and macros you require), and provide remote workers with a web address, user name and password for them to log in. With VPN server prices starting at $20/month, it’s an affordable option.
If you decide to do this “under the radar” (i.e. don’t tell the IT department you’re setting up your own VPN), you need to make sure you’re conforming to your organisation’s IT security policy. Otherwise, you could be in trouble.
The reasons for using cloud-based applications seem to be as valid in the Technical Publications department as in other departments. So it’s likely we’ll see a growth in the uptake of this type of service.
We welcome your comments.
Yesterday, we launched our online Technical Writer induction course.
This online course covers the technical documentation process and the skills you need in order to be a successful Technical Writer or Technical Author. Created by the authors of the popular “How to Write Instructions” book, this 14 module course explains the technical communicator’s role in today’s environment.
For more details, see our Technical author induction training course Web page or go to www.technicalwritercourse.com.
In developing our new Technical author basic/induction training course modules, one thing that struck us was it is easy to talk about a technical writing process that is often not followed in reality.
For example, most books on technical writing describe how the writing project begins with a planning stage, an activity where the project is carefully mapped out in detail. The reality is often quite different, and planning is often considered far less than a trainee Technical Author might imagine.
Many Technical Authors believe they already know their audience and the appropriate purpose of the document, so in a project with tight timescales, the planning stage can end up being minimised. The reality is that writing projects are often a recursive and iterative process. For example, the purpose of a document might revisited at the review stage. This decision may not be right, but it’s one that often happens.
Today, Technical Authors can be expected to describe a product in permanent beta, developed in using Agile methodologies,(EDIT) or using a single-sourcing tool. Times have changed, and the way Technical Authors carry out their work, to an extent, has done as well.
We’ve decided it’s wrong to pretend certain things don’t exist, and mention them in the course. Hopefully, it will help new Technical Authors identify where there are potential failings in a project and be able to make a justifiable case for certain activities.
Do you think this is the correct choice to make?
Hi,
You provide wonderful newsletters full of useful information. Thank you.
I’m a Senior Technical Writer in a small company, and I have one contractor working for me. We have come up against a challenge. <snip>… My team currently uses RoboHelp, which is not a collaborative, team tool for writing. The company likes to think the product addresses this issue, but they really do not.
I have searched for a writer-friendly product that allows collaborative, team writing on a project. Unfortunately, I haven’t found anything. What product do you recommend for teams working on projects together? Right now we have to share files, meaning only one of us can work on the project at any given time. This is a serious issue for us since we are in an Agile development environment where we support twelve developers. More will be added soon, but we there are no plans to bring on more writers.
TS
How would you advise TS?
We’ve just published our second ebook, called “How to write instructions“. It’s currently priced at just £2.83.
This short, concise guide explains how to write instructions, policies and procedures. Written by members of the projects team at technical writing services specialists Cherryleaf Ltd, this book is for anyone who needs assistance in writing instructions for users and is unfamiliar with technical writing best practice. Containing 4,250 words, its aim is to provide you with the key information you need to get started on writing your documents quickly and efficiently.
There are a number of books on technical writing, but most of them are comprehensive rather than concise. Many people just don’t have the time to read books that big. No-one seemed to be offering a low-cost, concise book on technical writing.
Publishing to Kindle offers a easy way to conduct market research. You can test which topics are the most popular, what is the best price to set, without the expenses normally associated with print publishing. We hope people will buy it, like it and find it useful.
In January 2011, a Westminster girls school ran an event showcasing professions that use written communication skills. They asked if somone from Cherryleaf could talk about being a Technical Author.
We decided the best way was to take parts from our training writing courses, and teach them about technical writing. Here’s what we covered: