atw: Re: Fields of Tech Communication
- From: "HALL Bill" <Bill.HALL@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 15:19:49 +1100
I'm also stimulated to write this by James Hunt's dismissive comments
from a few days ago about "structured writing". He has dismissed out of
hand what is a potentially large area of employment for genuinely
skilled technical writers.
Probably beginning sometime in the next year (it it hasn't already) the
Australian defence industry is going to be seeking fairly large numbers
of tech writers with software, hardware and maintenance experience.
Something on the order of $A 20 BN (not a misprint!) worth of major
Defence contracts are either in early startup phase or are due to be
signed in the next year or so. These projects will generate requirements
for a monumental amount of technical, maintenance and operating
documentation, with major sources of work likely to be found in
Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth, Canberra and Sydney. Jobs from
major contractors will tend to be long term and offer genuine
opportunities for career development. For example, I started with the
ANZAC Ship Project in 1990 just after the contract was signed, helping
with flowing down requirements from the prime contract into subcontracts
(some of the latter worth more than $200,000,000 each). Since then I
have done everything from proper tech writing and training to
documentation systems analysis and design - leading into to my present
position in head office dealing primarily with cross divisional and
cross Group knowledge management issues.
In the past, the defence industry has depended on hiring trained
tradespeople from the services. However, over the last few years Defence
has increasingly outsourced the kinds of work that provided the
in-service training, and industry has not yet realised that they now
have to take the responsibility for training given that no one else is
doing it.
Defence technical writing is by its nature is highly structured, in that
there are formal requirements on the contractors for configuration
management and delivery in accordance with Australian or international
defence standards. There will be a real advantage for people who
understand SGML and XML, and especially those who can make some claim to
understanding at least some of the Defence standards. At present the
world-wide defence industry is adopting the S1000D standard (it used to
have the prefix AECMA - but this has been dropped since the US DoD began
mandating it for all new projects). The reason S1000D is so popular, is
that the standard has been designed from the ground up to work in
conjunction with engineering configuration management.
See http://www.s1000d.com for complete details. The site provides what
is essentially a complete education in the use of S1000D for free. The
main source for CM knowledge is http://www.icmhq.com/ (not free). When
the crunch comes, anyone with writing experience who can also provide
some evidence that they understand these standards would likely be well
regarded. Electronic, electrical, mechanical or software trade or
engineering experience - to say nothing of tech doc management
experience - would be even better regarded.=20
We're not there yet, but I believe that eventually, the industry will
have to offer on-the-job training for people who can only offer just one
of the requisite skills.=20
In any event, if anyone is thinking about switching fields, now is the
time to consider Defence as one of those fields. However, the writing
environments will be increasingly structured. For example, Tenix is now
doing almost all its new tech docs in SGML, with an increasing fraction
of the authoring being done in a configuration controlled content
management. So far only one division has switched to the full S1000D
standard, but my colleagues in Defence tell me this is likely to be
mandated for the new large contracts.
Regards,
Bill Hall
Documentation Systems Analyst
Head Office, Engineering
Tenix Defence
Williamstown, Vic. 3016
Phone: 03 9244 4820
Email:bill.hall@xxxxxxxxx
URL: http://www.tenix.com
Honorary Research Fellow
Knowledge Management Lab
School of Information Management & Systems
Monash University
Caulfield East, Vic. 3145
URL: http://www.sims.monash.edu.au/research/km/
=20
| -----Original message-----
| From: Ilana Cohney Ilana.Cohney@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
| Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 09:58:58 +1100
| To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
| Subject: atw: Re: Fields of Tech Communication
|=20
| > Hi all,
| > Not exactly the same topic but I also am considering a work change.=20
| > Over the years I have been mainly working in a series of permanent=20
| > positions for both IT and non-IT orgnisations. I have been in my=20
| > current position for two years. I seems that after a couple=20
| of years in=20
| > an orgnisation, the profile and worth of the technical=20
| writer is much=20
| > less than it was at the beginning. When I commence a new=20
| job there is=20
| > usually much appreciation that at last there is someone who=20
| can actually=20
| > write to take over all those pesky documents and Help=20
| projects. After a=20
| > year or two the core system, online and procedure documents=20
| have been=20
| > written and (in my experience) the writer goes into=20
| "maintenance" mode.=20
| > This means that you are no longer seen as an important asset to the=20
| > company. As was so innocently put to me by my boss last=20
| week, "In our=20
| > experience, no-one actually uses the online Help anyway!" After all=20
| > documentation does not actually generate revenue for the=20
| business like=20
| > programming or project management does!
| >=20
| > My question actually is, how difficult is it to actually=20
| make a decent=20
| > living out of contract work? At the moment, it certainly looks more=20
| > appealing to me than dealing with another lot of patronising,=20
| > unappreciative ....need I say more... set of bosses. My problem is=20
| > that when I am looking for work, I panic and accept a=20
| permanent job and=20
| > its security because the thought of starving does not appeal much=20
| > either. Those of you contractors, do you find the constant=20
| job search a=20
| > real grind or do the benefits outweigh the negatives of a permanent=20
| > position?
| > Ilana
| > **************************************************
| > To post a message to austechwriter, send the message to=20
| austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
| >=20
| > To subscribe to austechwriter, send a message to=20
| austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "subscribe" in the=20
| Subject field.
| >=20
| > To unsubscribe, send a message to=20
| austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe" in the=20
| Subject field.
| >=20
| > To search the austechwriter archives, go to=20
www.freelists.org/archives/austechwriter
>=20
> To contact the list administrator, send a message to
austechwriter-admins@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> **************************************************
**************************************************
To post a message to austechwriter, send the message to
austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To subscribe to austechwriter, send a message to
austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "subscribe" in the Subject
field.
To unsubscribe, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
with "unsubscribe" in the Subject field.
To search the austechwriter archives, go to
www.freelists.org/archives/austechwriter
To contact the list administrator, send a message to
austechwriter-admins@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
**************************************************
**************************************************
To post a message to austechwriter, send the message to
austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To subscribe to austechwriter, send a message to
austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "subscribe" in the Subject field.
To unsubscribe, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with
"unsubscribe" in the Subject field.
To search the austechwriter archives, go to
www.freelists.org/archives/austechwriter
To contact the list administrator, send a message to
austechwriter-admins@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
**************************************************
Other related posts:
