February 2020

Modern Technical Communication Workflows

with Alan Houser

During this month’s STC Roundtable, we will consider how organizations are managing phases of the content lifecycle, so that you might consider other’s approaches to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your documentation-related workflows.

February Roundtable includes the following curated content, in addition to resources and an interactive forum for engagement on the topic.

Week 1: Live Webinar - An Overview of Modern Technical Communication Workflows
Week 2: Research Paper - A Survey of Modern Technical Communication Workflows
Week 3: Panel Discussion on Managing the Technical Documentation Lifecycle
Week 4: Podcast Interview

Organizations use a diverse range of tools and workflows to create, manage, and deliver effective technical communication.
This month we explore how organizations take different approaches not only to content authoring, but also to initiating documentation projects; working with SMEs; defining the revision/approval process; managing document revisions; publishing; tracking documentation issues; and translating technical content.

Weekly Content

STC Roundtable Webinar
An Overview of Modern Technical Communication Workflows

This webinar presented different approaches for each phase of the modern technical communication workflow, and how these workflows are influenced by development workflows, business and user requirements, and organizational culture.

Research Paper: A Survey of Modern Technical Communication Workflows

This research paper will present the results of a workflow survey.

The paper will present a taxonomy of publishing workflows, along with major influencers on technical communication workflows, including organizational structure, organizational culture, and business and user requirements.

The paper will include relevant resources for defining workflows.

Panel Discussion: How Modern Organizations Approach Technical Communication Workflows

PANELISTS: Alan Houser, Kris Eberlein, and Jenifer Schlotfeldt

This panel discussion featured representatives that use different approaches to authoring, managing, and delivering technical content. We will focus particularly on how each organization manages the technical documentation lifecycle. Authoring tool/approaches included Markdown, a conventional technical authoring/publishing tool, and DITA.

Podcast: Hearing from the Experts

Included in the Roundtable this month is a podcast interview from industry experts discussing what works well, and what could be improved in, their technical communication workflows.

Download the Presentation

Curator Bio:

Alan Houser

Photo of Alan HouserAlan Houser is a technical communication consultant and trainer in the fields of XML technologies, publishing workflows, authoring and publishing tools, and technical communication best practices. Alan is a Fellow and former President of the Society for Technical Communication, a member of the OASIS DITA Technical Committee and Lightweight DITA subcommittee, an adjunct instructor at Carnegie Mellon University, and an authorized Certified Professional Technical Communicator (CPTC) trainer. Alan currently sits on the board of governors of the IEEE Professional Communication Society, and is a member of the IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication editorial board.

Alan is a frequent presenter at technical communication conferences. Through his company, Group Wellesley, Inc., Alan enjoys deploying best practices and standards to help organizations improve the efficiency of their technical communication workflows. Follow Alan on Twitter at https://www.twitter.com/arh.

Roundtable Monthly Topics

Did this month’s theme spark your curiosity? Learn more by asking questions and discussing your experiences, challenges, and insights in our online forums.

General Tech Comm Queries

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General Roundtable Queries

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