This post is another part in a series about best practices in technical publications for software companies. Other posts include “ Questions for best practices in technical publications” and “Best practices for document management systems.”
A couple of the best practices listed in the article, “Tech writers as sales reps?” that we referred to for our Austin STC Meeting in October 2005 are related to where a tech pubs department best fits in a company, and what staffing levels are best suited for success. Specifically, the three best practices that the article mentions are:
#4: Have a reasonable ratio of writers to developers.
#5: Place technical writers somewhere sensible in your org chart.
#7: Encourage technical writers to meet customers.
#8: Use customer advisory boards to get feedback on documentation.
I then asked each manager to answer the questions below from their perspective. Here are summaries of the answers and wisdom given.
Q: The author of this article places technical writers in customer support. Is that the right placement for your company and team?
A: All three managers have teams that are located not in customer support, but rather are located in research and development, although the writers at smallest company sit near their technical consultants. So, their interpretation for the article was that perhaps customer support played a very strong role in that particular company, so from a power standpoint, it was a good placement in his case. One manager noted that regardless of where you are in the org chart, you can be physically located near development in order to build rapport and get information that you need.
All the managers realize that having the documentation team close to a group that drives the company can be a positive position. They noted that this positioning can also be a double-edged sword, because a shift in power can place a layoff target on the documentation team.
Q: Do you agree with the author’s 8:1 developer:writer approach? How do you estimate your ratios? What’s the right ratio? How have you used this ratio when asking for resources?
As the article notes that even 20 or 30 developers to each writer can exist, the managers stated that these figures can vary. At the smallest company, a 5 to 1 ratio is in effect, which works very well. The range was anywhere from 5:1 to 10:1, but the managers agreed that the age and maturity of the product being documented should really affect this number. Newer products should have fewer developers per writer. This idea sounded good to me, that the ratio really depends on the new material needed versus maintenance of established documentation.