Getting the Collaboration You Need for Quality Documentation
Presentation Abstract
For most tech pubs teams working in highly technical domains, top quality technical documentation depends on the collaboration between writers, reviewers, SMEs, engineers, editors, and others. At times this can feel more like parenting than an equal partnership, with collaborators slipping deadlines, coming up with excuses for not doing the job, and finally turning in the very minimum effort possible. Meanwhile, tech pubs finds itself cajoling, threatening, and even bribing (yes, I once had a manager who gave brownies in return for review feedback!).
At IXIASOFT, we’ve been looking at the issue and our latest release provides low-barrier tools for collaborators to create DITA content, provide review feedback, and approve content, without compromising on DITA, your information architecture, or reuse. That’s the carrot! The IXIASOFT CCMS also gives tech pubs the ability to target reviews at a granular level and track review feedback per topic over time, giving you more tools to do root cause analysis on your doc bugs and give collaborators more accountability in the partnership. This is the stick!
Also, the new release makes your children clean their bedroom the first time you ask 😊. OK, maybe not quite yet….
What can attendees expect to learn?
You will learn about understanding and removing barriers to collaboration, and also some strategies for holding documentation partners accountable. We’ll use the latest release of the IXIASOFT CCMS to demonstrate the points of the discussion.
Meet the Presenter
Sharon Figueira is the pre-sales consultant for IXIASOFT. I spent the previous 20 years working as a tech writer, manager, director, and project manager for global organizations such as Kodak, Ericsson, and HCL. I took my teams at both Kodak and Ericsson through a CCMS/DITA migration.
I live on a island near Vancouver, Canada, and enjoy swimming in the lake, kayaking, and gardening. I enjoy visits from my two lovely, domesticated adult children.