Specifications and Technical Communication

Asynchronous Course

25 September through 2 October 2023 (Mondays)

(final assignments will be due by Sunday, 8 October)

Registration closes 24 September 2023

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Description:

This two-session asynchronous course looks at the nature of specifications from a technical communicator’s point of view: their purpose, the kinds of specifications a technical communicator is likely to encounter or be asked to write, and their interaction with technical documents. It’s designed to provide an initial overview of the world of specifications for technical communicators who may have had little or no contact with the world of specifications and specification writing. It is not intended to provide in-depth coverage of the subject.

Each session is prerecorded and will be made available for course participants to view at a time convenient for them. In addition to the recorded sessions there will be opportunities to interact with the course leader and other participants to ask questions, exchange experiences, and debate issues.

Objectives:
• Understand what specifications do and don’t do
• Examine their relationship to customer-facing technical publications
• Learn about the different types of specifications and how to write them
• Learn about specifying technical content – doc specs, style guides, SOP’s.
• Specifications in an agile environment

This course is designed for beginning to mid-level technical communicators who use specifications as source material, or need to write specifications for products or internal processes.

At the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Use specifications effectively as source material for documentation
• Write simple specifications of different types
• Write specifications for technical documents
• Write specifications for internal processes and procedures
• Work with personas and user stories in an agile environment

Session 1: The specifics of specifications

Session 2: Specifying technical content