Hardware and software engineers are designers by nature and training. They design the infrastructure of the product and build the mechanics that allow it to function.

The product, or widget, they produce for you probably appears to them to be incredibly and elegantly simple. And, it is—to them. Those who use that product may not see it in the same light, however.

Designing Writers

Writers are also designers—a competent technical communicator has the experience and skill to design your documents effectively and efficiently.

Your hardware and software engineers cannot work in a vacuum, of course. Intuition only goes so far toward realizing a useful product. In the case of software, each development environment from the traditional System Development Lifecycle to Agile to Rapid Prototyping begins with the need for requirements analyses to inform the design.

Constant change—chaos—often produces unexpected and undesired results.

Technical communicators don’t work well in a vacuum, either. Flexibility is important, but no writer can anticipate every possible change in an environment that may be called, charitably, dynamic. If your product development is driven by the rubric that “the only constant is change,” and if your development, training, and deployment deadlines are on a collision course, well…

Despite the methodology your developers use, the documentation they create is no substitute for the more detailed documents a good technical communicator will produce for you that allow others to maintain and modify the product as needed. These as-built documents include the:

• Final design specifications
• Programming reference that documents APIs and routines
• Database views
• Test scripts and results
• Admin and user guides

Developer documentation does not provide the information customers need to use your products.

Feed Your Writers Well

You, your product, and your potential users will benefit greatly from your use of a good technical communicator from the start. This professional will work with you and your team to produce the requirements analysis, design specifications, and control documents. Users, admin, and network guides and training materials are a snap to produce by someone who has this background from which to work.