Information Competitive Analysis: Achieving Best-in-Class Design  

This paper examines a method used to help information designers gather and incorporate best-in-class practices and customer requirements into their documentation development processes Competitive Analysis - a method for systematically reviewing and benchmarking competing products and information - provides information developers with rich design data.

Murphy, Debra-Jo. STC Proceedings (1996). Design>Information Design

Performing Information Requirements Analysis: A View from the Top  

Usability engineering, instructional design, technical communication, and business process re-engineering disciplines have long co-existed as distinct entities within the corporate computer world. As companies continue to understand and accept the important relationships among these fields, technical communicators and educators find themselves exposed to a myriad of powerful new techniques that can be adopted for performing information and training requirements analyses. Information and instructional designers can now take advantage of higher-level assessment methods for performing up-front information requirements analyses... Regardless of the method you currently employ, or methods that allow designers to work with clients from a plan to employ in the future, you’ll want to ensure top-down, business 'entetprise engineering' perspective that your resulting data will give you the as never before.

Murphy, Debra-Jo. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Information Design

Positioning for the Future: From Technical Communicator to Information Consultant  

In the spring of 1992, one of Digital Equipment Corporation’s largest technical documentation groups funded a training program that helped shift job roles from “technical writing” to “information consulting.” The primary goal of this effort was to provide training and resource materials to 60 documentation developers (and their managers) to enhance their skills as documentation consultants. The following paper highlights some of the learnings gained from the experience of training a corporate documentation group to perform as information consultants.

Murphy, Debra-Jo. STC Proceedings (1993). Careers>Consulting