Writing-off technical writers
 he mantra of a customer centric Information and Technology Age "Content is King' is belied by complaints from technical writers of discrimination and organisational imbalance in favour of developers. Comfortably straddling the distance between technology and end-users these infomediaries of the new age digital company, documenting organisations' technology initiatives, perform a vital function demystifying sophisticated and complex technical jargon into common parlance accessible to the end-user. Imagine using the Windows Operating System without the friendly, reassuring animated icon that appears when one clicks on F-1! The technical writing function is not only central to the software development process but also directly feeds into every company's ultimate aim of cornering a significant market share by creating brand recall for the company's product through projection of a consumer-friendly image. Hence, just as it is unthinkable to ship a product without subjecting it to stringent testing requirements, a product cannot leave organisational shores without accompanying documentation detailing product features and usability.
Yet, in the software development cycle, technical writing is paid scant attention. The widely adopted software development processes - the spiral and the waterfall models - make no reference to documentation, underscoring low priority of technical writers in the development cycle. Proportionately fewer test cases have been evolved for documentation than development. Ideally documentation aimed at the end-user should receive 20 per cent of the product development cycle time but most writers admit that less than five per cent of time is budgeted for documentation and reviews. In tight delivery schedules the time could be crunched further. Augmenting the problems of a technical writer is the fact that creating customer-centered documentation is a collaborative effort requiring detailed inputs from subject matter experts, the development and testing team working on the product. Developers chasing their own deadline constraints and performance targets are largely unavailable and provide hasty, half-baked or outdated information resulting in tensions, high tempers, enormous last minute changes and impossible deadlines for technical writers.
Admits a technical writer working in a multinational networking company: "Developers shuffle technical writer like a ping-pong ball between them refusing to accept responsibility to provide inputs for components they deliver. The contact points of information for technical writers are unclear or simply not followed. Meetings for inputs are fixed at the developer's convenience not on the writer's immediate need. Hence garnering inputs boils down to personal relationships rather than being process-oriented."
Goading highhandedness towards writers is the anomalous position of the technical writer in the development team. Says Gurudutt Kamath a technical writer: "One of the reasons for feeling small is the lack of qualifications or certification. Whereas developers have well known degrees, technical writers have no specialised degree to boast of." Technical writers are hired for writing skills and for bringing a vital outsider user perspective to the product, not for knowledge of all things tech. Yet developers hold the lack of technical competence and know-how is against them and claim writers suffer from an inferiority complex.
"Everybody in the organisation right from the QA, developer, etc give very little value to the technical writer or rarely try to help him out or inform him in advance regarding providing assistance," complains a Twinner. Counters a developer: "By and large, technical writers need to be informed even of the most obvious issues. Developers are not given additional time to incorporate documentation needs, hence accusations of highhandedness and unhelpful behavior are unfair." Writers, in stark contrast, value their initial ignorance as an asset.
To quote Alan Pringle author of Technical Writing 101 "Your initial lack of knowledge works for you. As you learn how to use the new hardware or software, you encounter many of the same issues that user will face as they get started." Product knowledge that is obvious to developers is not so obvious to end-users whose interests they eventually serve. "In addition a technical writer is handling multiple documents for the same product or documentation for multiple products and cannot be expected to know the nuances of a product", says the tech writer at the networking company.
Ramesh Aiyyangar, a tech writer with Veritas, Pune opines: "Prejudices against technical writers stem from ignorance of value add that writers bring." Tech writing is a new field and has not yet been effectively quantified by organisations in terms of Return on Investment or made measurable in terms of tangible entities, purports another technical writer responding to the debate on the Twin Board. This at times transalate into callousness towards the writer. The technical writer working with the networking company recounts: "I have personally experienced ingratitude from team members. I remember an instance when I had made time from my rigorous schedule to complete documentation deliverables for another team because their tech writer was on leave. At the product release party, the manager forgot to mail an invite to me. The issue here is nor the dinner part but the lack of courtesy and acknowledgement."
Organisational policies contribute to the constant feeling of marginalisation. Power is tilted in favour of developers, the mainstay of any IT organisation. A technical writer on the Twin Board recounts her experience "I was working with a large media house. Before getting the appointment letter the company promised me the grade of software engineer (after my 4 years of experience and a post PG degree in IT). But when I received my first salary slip, I was shocked to see my grade as the grade given to trainees and that of call center persons. When I asked them about the same, the HR got furious and said that I have no right to any questions as this is management decision to put technical writers and call center professionals in the same grade. This they have done despite having written proof given along with my appointment letter. Whereas all the persons of my experience from R&D, QA and even designers were given upper grades, the technical writers were allocated to the lowest grades without any benefits given to regular employee." In certain companies, writers are not given e-sops.
Technical writers are, however, at pains to point out that the issue is not higher salaries or sops but respect and right valuation for one's work. Says Gurudutt Kamat: "Salaries are on par with developers. I do not insist that they should be the same. Developers and technical writers bring different skills, so they ought to be paid differently. There is a severe shortage of good technical writers, so I feel they can command a better price. In terms of bonuses too, I feel there is no discrimination. The nature of work commands the bonus. The driver of a truck and the cleaner of a truck are paid differently. Hey, I am not calling technical writer as cleaners! But I am just making a point." Concurs Ramesh: "Let us be honest. We are here because developers develop the product. So, there will be a difference in salaries/bonuses."
The primary issue is lack of acknowledgement. Most managers come from the ranks of developers and are clueless about technical writing. The solution: organisations must begin advertising the difference technical writers make in educating consumers about products and their sales. The document created by the writer is not an ornamental appendage but has the potential to make or break the product.
(Opinions expressed in the article are the personal opinions of individual technical writers)
Part 2 - A Writer's Life
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