Measuring Value Added: Rationale and Approaches  

This panel will present case studies on the value added by technical communicators and their information products to the products and services they support. Many of us practitioners would like to do more value-adding assessments, but don’t know how to adapt the measures to our real-world situations of limited budget and often limited interest among our customers. The panel will focus on practical approaches for applying some of the metrics used to calculate the value of our products and services (1,2). We will also discuss the benefits of this exercise for ourselves and our customers. With the current economic clime, waiting for others to determine the value of their work often means waiting in unemployment lines.

Knodel, Elinor L., Sandra M. Gallagher, Judith Leetham, Theresa Marchwinski, Amy E. Smith and Emily A. Sopensky. STC Proceedings (1996). Presentations>TC>Assessment

More Results on Measuring the Value Added by Professional Technical Communicators  

Measuring value added is a topic of great concern to technical communicators. At the 1994 conference, represented results from a year-long project that included a questionnaire and several case studies. STC then funded a second, smaller project in which we are following up with some of the people who responded to the questionnaire and in which we are collecting new case studies.

Ramey, Judith A. and Janice C. 'Ginny' Redish. STC Proceedings (1995). Presentations>TC>Assessment

Quality Basics: What You Need to Know to Get Started  

Quality can be an intimidating topic for many technical communicators. Quality is rarely covered in technical communication courses. Most technical communicators do not have access to a Quality guru to help them understand the concepts and available options. Because of this, many technical communicators avoid using Quality concepts that could help improve their documents.

Atkinson, Jennifer M., Donald S. Lenk, Amy Perry, Ralph E. Robinson and Roberta A. Rupel. STC Proceedings (2001). Presentations>TC>Assessment