The Basics of Quality  

With constantly changing deadlines and last minute major revisions, how can technical writers ever hope to create quality documents? Members of the STC Quality Special Interest Group (SIG) will present some basic concepts that will provide insights into ways you can improve the quality of your documentation. They will look at what is meant by 'quality documentation', how documentation quality can be measured, how quality can be implemented in documentation processes, how ISO 9000 requirements can be adapted to help improve the documentation process, and how the relationship between developers and writers can impact documentation quality.

Rupel, Roberta A., Lori H. Fisher, Donald S. Lenk, Ralph E. Robinson and Richard Colvin. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Writing>Quality>Technical Writing

Distributed or Centralized: How to Maintain Quality When They Keep Reorganizing Your Organization  

Is there a 'best' way to organize technical publications? One central organization? Many small organizations per business unit? Communicators distributed through the development teams? Discuss the pros and cons of organizational structure and its relationship to quality.

Hackos, JoAnn T. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Writing>Quality>Technical Writing

Hidden Factors of Documentation Quality -- Part 1

The first impulse of many documenters is to turn our work over to editors and graphic designers, or to form committees and develop style guidelines. All of these measures are useful, but none can assure us of quality when there are basic problems with the way we go about producing documentation.

Sesnovich, Bruce A. Boston Broadside (1993). Articles>Documentation>Quality>Technical Writing

Robert Pirsig’s Message for Documentation Quality  

Teachers of technical communication frequently recommend that their students read Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974) for his views on the complex relationships between technology and human values. As a former technical writer, Pirsig also offers some useful advice about Quality and its relation to the usability of technical documentation. Revisiting Pirsig’s works, including the more recently published Lila (1991), reveals concepts about Quality in documentation that are especially relevant to the usability testing of the documentation for today’s rapidly evolving technologies. This paper examines Pirsig’s views on the some of the characteristics of effective technical communication, and it offers advice to educators and trainers for incorporating Pirsig’s concepts about Quality into their teaching of techniques for the usability testing, and hence quality, of user documentation.

Shirk, Henrietta Nickels and Howard T. Smith. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Documentation>Quality>Technical Writing

“Good Enough” Really Isn’t

I’m enough of a perfectionist that I mentally wince every time I find myself thinking, “It’s good enough.” It sounds like a cop-out. It sounds like avoidance of responsibility and ownership. It sounds like I’m indifferent.

Gryphon Mountain (2009). Articles>Documentation>Quality>Technical Writing