Best-in-Class Companies Involve Technical Communicators in Early Stages, Report Finds

The Profession

Best-in-Class Companies Involve Technical Communicators in Early Stages, Report Finds

By Cecily Farrar, Assistant Editor

How do the best-performing companies structure their technical communication departments? To find out, the Aberdeen Group—along with the Society for Technical Communication, the Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators, and the Center for Information-Development Management—examined the experiences and goals of more than 330 businesses that responded to an online survey about their development processes for product documentation. Developed with the assistance of members of the STC Research and Strategic Planning Committees, the questionnaire focused on such issues as the degree to which product documentation impacts corporate strategies, operations, and financial results and the structure and effectiveness of existing documentation procedures.

The Next-Generation Product Documentation Report: Getting Past the “Throw It over the Wall” Approach, published in December 2006 by the Aberdeen Group, examined five key performance indicators: publication/product launch date, documentation cost, translation cost, documentation purpose, and documentation quality. Companies whose aggregate scores were in the top 20 percent were categorized as “best in class,” those in the middle 50 percent fell into the “average” category, and the remaining 30 percent were deemed “laggard.”

“This report elevates the real value of product information and draws attention to the impact that technical communicators have on a manufacturer’s success in the marketplace,” said Dan Ortega, vice president of marketing for Astoria Software, one of the report’s underwriters. “[The technical communicator is] the hub for information about a manufacturer’s product [and] should be leveraged throughout the entire organization. . . . The end result will be a more consistent and positive product information experience for end users at every customer touch point.”

Seven Key Recommendations
The Aberdeen report recommends the following actions to optimize product development processes:

Kick off the documentation and design processes at the same time. Best-in-class companies are 74 percent more likely than average or laggard companies to start the documentation process at the same time as the design process. Involving technical communicators early helps the project team meet deadlines—best-in-class companies meet their documentation targets on a 92 percent or better average—and allows for coordination and communication in relation to product changes.
Integrate the documentation department into engineering. Best-in-class performers are 69 percent more likely to place the documentation team in the engineering department. “Increased collaboration between engineers and technical writers keeps documentation up-to-date with design changes and results in successfully hitting launch dates,” according to the report. (The best in class make two-thirds fewer postproduct launch changes than laggards.)
Distribute structured document and content management tools to technical writers. For text-based documentation, best-in-class companies are 45 percent more likely to use structured document authoring tools such as XML and help technologies, which enable quick and easy content reuse. Top performers are also 45 percent more likely to use content management for their documentation, in turn creating relationships between topics.
Provide 3-D visualization and design-based illustration tools to technical illustrators. Best-in-class companies are 72 percent more likely to use design-based illustration tools. Technical communicators who use 3-D visualization or publishing technologies can capture their own images rather than work with computer-assisted design (CAD) users. These tools also save time for technical illustrators, who no longer have to wait for images from CAD users.
Deploy translation memory technology to localize product documentation. Best-in-class companies are 51 percent more likely to employ translation memory technology, which analyzes current content against existing translated material. Reusing content that has already been written and translated means that less time and money are required to localize it. The best in class also experience half the translation gap that laggards do.
Use 3-D publishing technology to increase graphical communication. Best-in-class companies are twice as likely to use 3-D graphical communications. For example, 3-D graphics embedded within electronic documents allow users to closely examine the product and observe animations of service and maintenance procedures.
Track content reuse to check for documentation readability. Best-in-class companies are seven times more likely to use percentage reuse as a key indicator of readability performance. Tracking content reuse is important because consistent documentation is easier for users to consume and aids in reinforcing the message.

About Aberdeen
Founded in 1988, the Aberdeen Group provides fact-based research on global technology issues. Aberdeen’s research community of more than 125,000 executives completed over 100 extensive research studies in 2006. For more information, visit www.aberdeen.com.

Other report underwriters include Adobe, JustSystems, ParallelGraphics, and SDL International.