Survey of UK Documentation Teams

We've completed interviewing the managers of UK documentation teams today. We estimate our survey covers 5% of the technical authors in the UK. This means we should have a representative sample size.

The next step is to combine all the questionnaires, analyse the data and write the report.

In our survey, we were particularly interested in discovering:

• Is there likely to be a significant change in the number of authors in the team in 2009?
• Will the split between contract and permanent staff change in 2009?
• Is there a difference between teams single sourcing and those that are not?
• Is there any move to off-shore documentation?
• Are other departments encroaching on Technical Authors’ work?
• How is the documentation team’s performance measured?
• Is there unanimity as to what makes a good document?
• Is the size of the documentation team related to the volume of content produced, the number of programmers/engineers or the size of the company?
• How do authors develop and improve their skills?
• Is there a trend towards customised documentation?
• Is there a trend towards user generated content?
• Is there a move towards DITA?
• Does the adoption of XML based authoring lead to wider use of authoring tools outside of the Publications team?
• How important is documentation to organisations?
• Has there been any adoption of Web 2.0 technologies?
o If there has been a move away from manuals, do technical authors still do the work?
• If there has been a move towards XML,
o Do non-technical authors now get involved in writing content ?
o Do technical authors get source content in XML format (or is it still “cut and paste”)?

It will be interesting to see what answers we find.

We'll be writing a report on our findings, which will be available in our online shop in the near future.

Would you like to take part in our benchmarking survey of UK Publications teams?

Cherryleaf is undertaking a benchmarking survey of Technical Publications teams based in the UK. Participants will be give a copy of the summary report of our findings that we'll be putting together.

If you head up a team of 3+ writers, which is based in the UK, and you'd like to participate, then please contact us.

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The secrets of effective technical authors

In early 2007, Cherryleaf carried out a survey to find out the challenges technical authors face. We looked at satisfaction levels, the status of authors and what was holding them back, if anything. We also looked at other research on what makes a good writer. We received nearly 500 responses, and we presented our conclusions at the Online Help Conference Europe 2007.

Our objective was to identify areas where there might be opportunities for new training courses and consider publishing a report on what makes a successful technical author.

In general, we found that authors were confident in their own capabilities and the quality of the work they delivered. However, when we asked “What is holding you back?” some fascinating themes came out.

We categorised these as:

(1) office politics (in other words, “nobody loves us”)
(2) project management and
(3) time management.

A key theme coming out from the responses boiled down to authors complaining that their work colleagues didn’t know their value.

When we mentioned our findings to Anne-Florence Dujardin, one of the tutors in Technical Communication at Sheffield Hallam University, she pointed us towards some research carried out by one of her former students in 2002.

This student, Deborah Shapiro, had looked at the personality traits of success in technical authors. In her preliminary study of 223 software technical authors, she had found that effective technical authors had high “openness” and “agreeableness” (defined as “trust of others” and “likeability”), when their personality was measured on the OCEAN personality and PEI effectiveness profiling systems. One of her conclusions was that technical authors should negotiate more, and be more assertive, while maintaining good work relationships. In her words, “skills, language and technical knowledge are sometimes not enough to be an effective technical writer”.

Shapiro’s findings concurred in many ways with our own experiences. It seemed that the solution to being a successful technical author lay not only in being a good writer, but also in being good at positioning, promotion and project management.

Survey into improving the status of technical authors

Cherryleaf has initiated a survey into the issue of improving the status of technical writers/technical authors. You can participate in our questionnaire here:

Survey into the issue of improving the status of technical authors.