Basic tech pubs value proposition

31Jul08

As I stated in Charging for doc, most tech pubs groups can’t directly charge, or charge enough, for their products (the documentation and related content that they produce) to claim significant roi. Even so, tech pubs groups continue to get funded, and (typical enterprise software) products don’t get very far along before a resource is [...]

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Charging for doc

25Jul08

Previously, I wrote about the relatively informal attitudes and approaches toward determining roi for technical publications. One thing I didn’t mention, possibly because it goes without saying, is that the overwhelming majority of companies can’t or don’t charge directly for technical content. In many cases, there are legal restrictions; sufficient documentation must be provided as [...]

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Some initial thoughts on technical publications and ROI

22Jul08

Companies that document their products always need to determine how much to invest in the process. Publishing requires people and systems to design, author, edit, format, brand and illustrate, and produce.
Once the books, help systems, web sites, etc. are created and distributed, their value is generally estimated subjectively; historically, it just hasn’t been easy [...]

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Introduction

19Jul08

I’m Darryl Tewes, and I have been working in the technical communication / technical publications field since 1989. I have worked as a writer (captive and contract), a tech pubs manager, and most recently as the manager of a technical publications tools engineering group. Most of my experience has been in enterprise software.
This blog is [...]

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