Mozart’s Serenade in TCPIP minor
The STC TransAlpine Chapter (TAC) is holding its annual conference – doubling as its 10th anniversary celebration – in Vienna, 8-10 June 2009. We are proud to announce that conference organizers have chosen to feature two presentations by TCPIP Krakow members:
Design More, Write Less
Katarzyna Kostorz, IBM SWG Krakow Software Lab
Employing outside-in design principles can improve user experience and help technical writers reduce the cost and complexity of their documentation. The escalating complexity of software solutions—laden with unnecessary functionality and impossible to install—often results in a growing volume and sophistication of user documentation perceived as an easy and inexpensive means of dealing with design failures. The problem lies in the lack of interaction design experts. The presentation covers the basic principles of outside-in design as applied to user interface design and information architecture.
Two case studies show how technical writers can take up the role of interaction designers and improve the usability and intuitiveness of user interfaces, and at the same time simplify and reduce the amount of documentation required to guide the users through their tasks. Acting as a user advocate, the writer can become the first usability tester and evaluator and provide a sanity check on development teams to help them design software with user focus, rather than technology focus, in mind.
Competitive Analysis: The Incentive for Self-Improvement in Documentation
Anna Haberko, IBM SWG Krakow Software Lab
How do you rate yourself against the competition? Do you ever wonder what makes them different, better or worse? What are the competition documentation areas you may want to draw on?
One way to improve one's position in the marketplace, be it documentation for health care, software or hardware solutions, is to conduct competitive evaluation against the documentation of competitors. Such an analysis enables you to position yourself among others, as well as helps you discover and acknowledge strengths and relative weaknesses of your own documentation.
The presentation will describe the best practices of conducting a competitive analysis on the basis of two case studies undertaken by a technical writer researching the documentation effectiveness. It will cover all stages of the evaluation process starting with its' planning to choosing and acquiring the competitors' products, defining methodology and effectiveness criteria, to performing the evaluations, analyzing the results and drafting the final assessment report, as well as presenting it to the local community of technical writers, and seeing the recommendations implemented.
Do not miss the opportunity to take part in this memorable event, which also features world-reknown speakers like Tom Johnson and Ellis Pratt. Updated information about workshops, conference topics, speakers, directions, prices are available on the STC Transalpine Web site.
Kasia and Anna are both rising stars on the Krakow tech comm scene. The TCPIP wishes them the best of luck in Austria’s capital - Viva Vienna!
Related links:
STC TransAlpine Chapter
STC TransAlpine 10th Anniversary Conference brochure (PDF)
Tech Comm a class act with WSE students
A Tischner European University classroom morphed into a GPS manufacturer's documentation department for one special day.
Technical Writing Day started in the afternoon and was opened by Lech Rzedzicki – TCPIP co-founder and tech writing freelancer – who provided students with a basic introduction to the field. Topics discussed included the scope of documentation, its lifecycle, and a writer’s research, combined with the process of writing and reviewing docs. He then went on to guide students through a two-hour workshop – the rookies were asked to write a short description and a few tasks for a GPS unit. The only materials the students could rely on were the GPS unit, its full Russian manual, and its Polish manual with the specific tasks pulled out. Eighteen students, together with their teachers, tried their best to produce the best possible manual. We’ll hopefully learn about the results at our next community meeting!
Later, writers gathered for a small knowledge-sharing meeting. Even though they spent almost the entire day at the university, many students stayed to listen to their more experienced friends.
The first person to present was Erin Heximer, who gave an interactive speech about technical writing as a profession. She quizzed the crowd with questions, such as: What can be called technical writing? What does a user really need documentation for? What types of writing are similar to technical writing? What is the best way to structure a text? By triggering feedback, she gave everyone an occasion to develop a common understanding of the term and the profession of technical writing/er.
After overcoming initial microphone problems (check, check, 1, 2,3), Edward Smyda-Homa gave a quick introduction to DITA – an XML-based, end-to-end architecture for authoring, producing, and delivering technical information. Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) focuses on the following features:
- Topic-orientation (information is delivered via tasks, concepts, and references)
- Reuse (of topics and content)
- Extensive metadata
He also stressed the fact that DITA separates two things from content that usually distract real tech writers when using traditional word processing tools – style and formatting. At the end of his presentation, in a very comprehensive way, Ed gave interesting examples of how to create DITA topics based on ballroom dancing!
The last speaker of the day was Katarzyna Kostorz who made the participants more aware of the Agile development process. Kasia and her team have been working in an Agile environment for many months now. Agile, as opposed to the Waterfall model – which is linear, sequential, and in which teams are separated by specialty – is a new method of development where teams work in short iterations (fixed time), break tasks into small parts with minimal planning, and do not directly involve long-term planning. Kasia was very much in favour of Agile, and summarized principles her team follows:
- Self-directed teams – the roles within teams change, writer can become a tester, etc
- Sustainable pace – people work in the fixed amount of time, teams don’t have to hurry up at the end of a release
- Time-boxed iterations – they should not be longer that two months
- Continuous integration – designing, building and testing in each iteration
- Stakeholder feedback – providing the customer with something after each iteration, getting feedback
- Use cases/user stories – concentration on the user’s needs, not technology
Technical Writing Day finished with some overtime due to the interest from the crowd. After the speakers’ dealt with the question portion of the evening, we all went to celebrate Technical Writing in Krakow’s Main Market Square. Hopefully this can become an annual event!
Related links:
Tischner European University
OASIS Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) TC
The Agile Manifesto
Tischner European University to hold Technical Writing Day
Students will get a chance to experience what it's like to be a professional technical writer during Technical Writing Day at Tischner European Unversity on April 21st.
The event is an opportunity to listen to and even work side-by-side with people active in the technical communication profession in Krakow. The feature lecture, "Will the Real Tech Writer Please Stand Up? – Introducton to Technical Communication", will be presented by TCPIP founder Lech Rzedzicki. It will be followed by a technical writing workshop, where students will try their hand at technical writing under the guidance of experienced TCPIP members. The event will conclude with a monthly TCPIP community meeting - open to both students and faculty.
For a complete schedule, see the event poster (in Polish).
Related link:
Tischner European University
A smokin' experience!
Having discussed complex and serious yet interesting technical writing issues the previous month at IBM, Krakow technical communicators decided to meet on less formal grounds than in February – Shisha Club on Krakow's Maly Rynek.
The Arabian interiors were cozy enough to allow all to get to know one another, and talk about their every-day technical communicator work lives. For the first time, we had the pleasure of welcoming a fellow writer from Comarch – Izabela Choinska!
Disappointed by the fact there were no belly dancers (even volunteers from among the puffers), writers entered into discussions that were just as fruitful as the shisha they were smoking – the flavours were a hit: banana, apple-mint, multi-fruit and even cappuccino. But let’s be honest… tech comm topics were quickly replaced by more informal ones and spontaneous jumping – obviously the hookahs were to blame. ;) A couple of writers from Motorola were surprised by how easily a candle can set a hookah hose ablaze (sorry Shisha Club).
Again, the gathering was acclaimed a big success. New BFFs were made and fun was had by all. Photo coverage shows it explicitly!
Post-graduate course on information architecture in Krakow
The Pedagogical University of Krakow has just opened the second edition of Information Architecture/Information Management in Web Services post-graduate studies.
The long-postponed course finally started the weekend of March 13-15 and gathered nearly a dozen participants wanting to know more about IA. Librarians, programmers, a teacher, a journalist, a sociologist, and a tech writer from all over Poland have participated in the introductory meetings of a year-long post-graduate program.
The information architecture in discussion will be approached from the perspective of its’ information science background and will relate closely to many disciplines, such as library science, journalism, information technology, electronic editing, and user experience. The meetings will take place fortnightly for two semesters, and will include approx. 70 hours of lectures and 180 hours of practical classes
The subject and workshops are grouped into 9 blocks:
- Internet in social communication
- Websites – classification, structure, and evaluation
- Search systems and languages
- Researching user experience and behavior
- Managing a project team
- Designing Websites
- Graphic design for WWW
- Usability and information architecture in IT related projects
- Electronic editing
The first session resulted in creating a blog and a promise of a pub crawl on the nearest occasion. For a first-hand experience, contact: Anna Haberko
Related links:
IA Program Web site (PL)
IA Program Wiki (PL)
Related publications:
P Morville, L Rosenfeld - 2006 - Information architecture for the world wide web
Hookah'd on Tech Comm social event
The community's first ever social event will morph our workplace desks and chairs into a more cozy and exotic environment – draped cloths, piles of cushions, and comfy couches at Shisha Club! Join us Thursday, March 26th at 19:00!
The main attraction at Shisha Club is the Hookah. Besides being a terminology nightmare (they are known under many names, like shisha, narghile, goza or simply water pipe), the Hookah is a traditional pastime in the Middle-East that dates back to the 17th century. Once only a privilege of royalty and the upper classes, Hookahs have become a social phenomenon that have even found their way into non-Arab themed bars and restaurants.
Make time to come socialize and puff those long tubes gurgling damp apple, mint, and multi-fruit flavoured smoke! No sultan or belly dancer dress codes in effect.
The Shisha Club is located at Maly Rynek 2.
Related links:
Shisha Bar
Hookah (Wikipedia)
First tech comm-unity meeting a success!
TCPIP Krakow's first ever meeting on 11 February 2009 drew 25 people to the warm blue confines of the IBM Krakow Software Lab. In attendance and sharing stories were Content Developers from Motorola, graduates and students of the English studies program at Jagiellonian University and the teacher of a Technical Writing course at Tischner European University, and the hosts - Information Developers from IBM.
To the sound of apple pie, poppy seed cake and pizza nibbles, Krzysiek Bak, a Team Lead at Motorola, welcomed everyone and provided the crowd with an exciting overview of the TCPIP – an organization he co-founded. If Krzysiek’s memory serves him well, it all started in 2005 when he “began his tech writing adventure.” Among the important organization milestones mentioned were the registration of TCPIP at Krakow City Hall in February 2007 and meeting IBMer Edward Smyda-Homa in November 2007, which culminated in the TCPIP Krakow Chapter and the present day event.
Krzysiek explained that our young organization, with over 40 registered members, goes beyond just spreading knowledge about technical writing to maintaining close ties with companies and human resources agencies and taking part in industry conferences. As far as plans for the future are concerned, TCPIP wants to increase the promotion of technical writing our profession in the Polish market, unite professionals involved in technical writing nation-wide and organize regular community meetings (get-to-know parties, lectures sharing experience and ideas).
For all those wondering, Krzysiek broke his finger (see photo) during a handball match. He didn’t have a bronze medal around his neck, which probably means he was not playing for the Polish national team. Heal up soon, Krzysiek!
Next, Erin Heximer, an Information Development Manager at IBM, talked briefly about her 15-years’ experience as a technical writer and a manager. She has taken part at numerous technical writing conferences and stressed the importance of networking and sharing knowledge. Erin drew particular attention to the Society for Technical Communication (STC), specifically the TransAlpine Chapter, which is holding its annual meeting in Vienna this year.
The floor was then given to Katarzyna (Kasia) Kostorz, an IBM Information Developer, who gave a thorough presentation about the day in the life of a technical writer at her company. She began by explaining what she and her teammates produce – online help, context sensitive help, PDF manuals, multimedia help – and later described how the writing process differs between the agile and waterfall approaches to development. Kasia also commented on the test work that some writers are involved in and her favorite part of the job – helping in user interface design. The presentation was very thought-provoking, and lead to an interesting discussion.
The end of the meeting was reserved for questions. Everyone wanted to learn about what their colleagues do, what tools they use and how they test documentation. The Technical Writing teacher, Magdalena Buchta, described what her classes look like and why she decided to lead such a course. She was also interested in internship opportunities for her students. After nearly two hours, the group decided to meet regularly and suggested topics they would be keen on discussing next time, including: Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA), documentation testing, multimedia tools, building team morale, style guides, and technical writing conferences. Elzbieta Pacan from IBM suggested going to a local pub for a beer more often! All in all, it was a pleasurable and professional meeting – we all hope to see you next time!
Related links:
STC Europe SIG
Related publications:
The Chicago Manual of Style, The University of
Chicago Press
Developing Quality Technical Information, IBM
Press Series
The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High Tech
Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity by Allan
Cooper
Happy 200th Birthday, Chuck!
After seeing the Google Doodle this morning I realized that if Charles Darwin were alive today he would be an old man – a very, very old man. This February 12th we celebrate the bicentennial birthday of the man who founded the theory of evolution and is the namesake of Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) standard - an XML-based topic-oriented architecture for authoring and single-sourcing technical information.
In DITA, the "topic" – a unit of information that describes a single task, concept, or reference item - is the basic architectural unit. Writers are forced to develop small task-based chunks of content that can be easily understood by the reader and reused elsewhere. The "Darwin" in the name refers to the principles of inheritance and specialization implicit in the architecture, which resemble the principle of variation in species proposed by Charles Darwin.
Darwin’s famous book "The Origin of the Species" (unfortunately not written in DITA) celebrates it’s 150th anniversary this year.
Related links:
Introduction to the Darwin Information Typing
Architecture (IBM)
OASIS Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) TC
IBM writers to host first community meeting
How can you show your love for Technical Communications during Valentine's week? It's easy in our city – join us at the IBM Krakow Software Lab on Wednesday, February 11th at 19:00 for our first community meeting!
Help us build a close-knit local technical communcation community. Let's start getting to know each other, the work we do and sharing knowledge that will improve the quality and effecitveness of our technical communications!
The meeting will have both an organizational and educational character. The founders of the TCPIP will give an overview of the organization and their plans for it in 2009, with the floor open to discussion. IBM writers will then discuss how product documentation is developed at one of the largest software companies in the world – demoing some of the tools they use and explaining the project methodologies they follow.
The meeting is free and open to the public. The IBM Krakow Software Lab is located at ul Armii Krajowej 18 and can be reached using the following MPK buses: 103 (Mydlniki), 139 (Bronowice Male), 173 (Azory), and 208 (Port Lotniczy).
Please spread the word to your collegues and friends to join us!