Looking like a Unified Tech Pubs Team for Decentralized Groups
Presentation Abstract
Looking to move to modular documentation using a DITA strategy? Are you ready with a unified work flow? Do you have a Style and Graphic Guide Strategy? At Imagination we did not, but knew modular documentation and DITA was our goal.
My company presents a complete solution with a variety of tools to build products that our customers can easily use. However, internally, we are separate teams with too many conductors to orchestra a proper symphony. We are an international company with no central tech pubs leader. How do diverse teams built from multiple acquisitions, look like a unified team in our publications, processes, styles, and formats? This brief presentation will tell the success of how a team can transition to a unified tech pubs team though coming from decentralized groups with vast cultural differences. We accomplish this through three key strategies:
Get to know the teams and each other: Transparency, no egos, and understand cultural differences.
Establish common goals: What is our end game, what are the gaps for a standard pubs group, and where we want to be.
Communication and Collaboration: Establish weekly discussions of sharing thoughts about where we want to go, and don’t take things personal.
What can attendees expect to learn?
Moving to modular writing is more than tools and formats. It also requires an infrastructure and a team collaborating together. Working together is about looking at the whole and not your individual wants. Reaching team agreement is hard but worth getting the buy in from a disperse team.
Meet the Presenter
Leticia Guzzetta is an experienced Technical Publications manager and writer with a focus on improving publishing processes and content strategies with some expertise in XML, DITA, CMS, CCMS, and FrameMaker. At Imagination Technologies (her current company), Leticia manages the MIPS documentation writing team and projects. She works closely with her overseas peers to improve the publishing process and guide the team to modernization. With her 17 years management experience and 30 years publishing experience, Leticia is in a unique position to aid her colleagues on their modular documentation journey.
Leticia has a BA, MA in English. She hopes to achieve a doctorate someday. In Leticia’s spare time, she enjoys spending time with her family and traveling…especially to Hawaii.