http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Quality A listing of the most recently indexed works about Quality in the field of technical communication. en-us Copyright (c) 2005-08 by the EServer. All rights reserved. tclib-editorial@eserver.org (TC Library Editorial Board) webmaster@eserver.org (Geoffrey Sauer) http://tc.eserver.org/images/newlogo.gif http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Quality http://tc.eserver.org/35029.html http://tc.eserver.org/35029.html The Flip's success stunned the industry, but it shouldn't have. It's just the latest triumph of what might be called Good Enough tech. Cheap, fast, simple tools are suddenly everywhere. http://tc.eserver.org/34899.html http://tc.eserver.org/34899.html People use different terms to describe quality and if they actually use the same term, then it is highly unlikely that they will use the same definition for the term. So the first problem faced in the review process is the vocabulary used to describe quality attributes in a document. http://tc.eserver.org/34909.html http://tc.eserver.org/34909.html Document reviews should be used as a tool to build quality into research and technical reports. In most handbooks for professional writers, review is recommended for clear and simple reasons: it is intended to identify problems and suggest improvements that enable an organization to produce documents that accomplish its goals and meet readers’ needs. http://tc.eserver.org/34861.html http://tc.eserver.org/34861.html In open source, the standards for documentation are typically quite low. But they don't have to be. http://tc.eserver.org/34806.html http://tc.eserver.org/34806.html In our consultancy, we have developed a set of terms that represent what we consider to be an effective set of descriptive markers. Markers that help to measure how well a document is communicating. We characterize our set of markers as “Document Standards” for all forms of technical and scientific writing. http://tc.eserver.org/34807.html http://tc.eserver.org/34807.html Most people involved with authoring and reviewing process do not have good markers to inform them of the overall communication quality of a document. So without good markers they are left to utilize really poor markers to help them measure document quality. http://tc.eserver.org/34340.html http://tc.eserver.org/34340.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/34246.html http://tc.eserver.org/34246.html The Yahoo Exceptional Performance team has identified a number of best practices for making web pages fast. The list includes 34 best practices divided into 7 categories. http://tc.eserver.org/34233.html http://tc.eserver.org/34233.html How do we know whether content is any good? This simple question does not have a simple answer. Yet, I think having a good answer would help us show our employers and clients why their content needs to improve and how their content compares to the competition’s. http://tc.eserver.org/31982.html http://tc.eserver.org/31982.html Wondering how you can assess the effectiveness and productivity of your work? Admittedly, it’s not easy and there are no simple approaches. But it can be done. As you develop a program, consider these issues, which arose from a review of literature on the metrics used to assess the productivity and effectiveness of software engineering, training, marketing communications, and technical communication. http://tc.eserver.org/31981.html http://tc.eserver.org/31981.html This bibliography was compiled through January 2004 by Don Lenk. Entries reviewed in STC publications, or about which someone provided a personal observation, are annotated. http://tc.eserver.org/30558.html http://tc.eserver.org/30558.html The world of technical communication continues to search for a reliable information metric that is easy to apply and widely accepted. Although that goal eludes us for the moment, we can make a choice among competing metrics based on an understanding of their strengths and weaknesses, and appropriateness for different audiences. Two kinds of metrics, ordinal scale metrics and surface feature metrics, seem to meet many of our needs. The differences between them lie in their choice of measurements and the methods of applying the measurements. http://tc.eserver.org/30545.html http://tc.eserver.org/30545.html This discussion is intended for people who have recently assumed project management responsibilities (or want to). Project and quality management is about developing a plan, working the plan, and evaluating the results. http://tc.eserver.org/30483.html http://tc.eserver.org/30483.html Offers an approach to achieving 'Quality of Service' that emphasizes the importance of understanding your customer's business problems, soliciting active customer involvement, and employing prototyping techniques to create cost-effective solutions. A new definition of quality has also emerged. http://tc.eserver.org/30491.html http://tc.eserver.org/30491.html From the customer's perspective, an important and visible part of a product or service is its documentation. Bellcore's Technical Publications (Tech Pubs) organization uses a Quality Assurance (QA) program that focuses on enhancing customer satisfaction through delivering high-quality documentation. This program emphasizes a 'network' approach to documentation development, whereby technical writers can most efficiently use the support network of QA reviewers and management available to them. The Tech Pubs QA program draws on the needs of clients and the expertise of technical writers to strive to achieve the highest level of quality possible in producing documentation. http://tc.eserver.org/30505.html http://tc.eserver.org/30505.html In an effort to improve the quality of our documentation, our Information Development department personally visited over 80 of our customers in 10 different locations across the United States. Our goal was to find out what we needed to do to create documentation that would satisfy our customers' needs. We came up with a process for planning our visits, gathering the information from our customers, implementing their requirements, and increasing communication with them. From the visits, we not only made changes that immediately satisfied our customers, but we created an environment for them to work with us as a team. http://tc.eserver.org/30523.html http://tc.eserver.org/30523.html Those who use our products often ignore our best efforts at good documentation because they prefer to explore and learn by trial and error. Several researchers have developed document strategies that might help our users explore, learn, and recover from their errors. In order to use these strategies, however, technical communicators must get to know their users better, prototype their documentation, and test it on their users. Researchers need to tell us more about active learners and strategies for meeting their needs. http://tc.eserver.org/30417.html http://tc.eserver.org/30417.html By developing a strategic plan, finding out if we are producing the right learning products in the most efficient way, and changing to a minimalist document design, we can meet the challenges of the present business environment. Since many of us are now expected to produce more with less while maintaining or improving the quality of the products we produce, we need to manage our function better. By following the suggestions in this paper, you will be able to: communicate the importance of your function; get control of your function; demonstrate how you add value to your companies' products. http://tc.eserver.org/30344.html http://tc.eserver.org/30344.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/30002.html http://tc.eserver.org/30002.html Webmasters who spend their energies upholding the spirit of the basic principles will provide a much better user experience and subsequently enjoy better ranking than those who spend their time looking for loopholes they can exploit. http://tc.eserver.org/29908.html http://tc.eserver.org/29908.html This is a brief overview of Six Sigma principles and an introduction to basic methods used in a Green Belt project in a technical publications department. This Green Belt project addressed the impact of declining return rates of technical reviews to both quality and cost. The author explains how the project originated and which Six Sigma methods were selected and implemented. She will review several examples of methods used to identify feasible solutions. The intended results of this project are to increase the return rate and, more importantly, to improve documentation quality and greatly reduce the department's cost of rework. http://tc.eserver.org/29645.html http://tc.eserver.org/29645.html This paper describes what we learned during the development and implementation of a quality improvement program in the Documentation Development Division at SAS Institute Inc. Our division includes 48 writers and 12 editors. What we learned is that a quality improvement program needs to preserve collegiality, be repeatable and improvable over time, and be part of an integrated effort to create and maintain documentation standards and guidelines. http://tc.eserver.org/29130.html http://tc.eserver.org/29130.html In this article we focus on professional readers who have to write recommendations in an online environment. We address the question whether taking notes on screen influences the reading process and the quality of the recommendations in terms of applicability, completeness, and persuasiveness. Seven participants each composed two pieces of advice on technical communication issues. They could use an electronic Notepad whenever they wished. Taking notes appeared to influence advice quality negatively, which may be caused by attention shifts from reading to taking notes on screen. Although we could not find a relationship between the contents of the notes and advice quality, we noted differences in note-taking approaches between the participants. http://tc.eserver.org/28423.html http://tc.eserver.org/28423.html We don't have bad web because it's difficult to create effective web sites, but because the people who make them are not properly equipped. Most people making web sites today simply don't know the essentials of design and how to apply them to the web. http://tc.eserver.org/28300.html http://tc.eserver.org/28300.html Paresh Naik explains how the Technical Writers and Publication Managers can leverage the six sigma tools and techniques for improving the quality of information products and processes. http://tc.eserver.org/28282.html http://tc.eserver.org/28282.html Einfache Checkliste zur Beurteilung und Verbesserung der Qualität Technischer Dokumentation, insbes. Technischer Dokumentation für Software (Software-Dokumentation) wie Handbücher, Online-Hilfen sowie interaktiver Demos und Tutorials. http://tc.eserver.org/28281.html http://tc.eserver.org/28281.html Basic checklist for assessing and improving the quality of technical documentation, especially software documentation such as user manuals, online help files, interactive demos and tutorials. http://tc.eserver.org/27731.html http://tc.eserver.org/27731.html Research on the state of corporate writing and its impact on organisational health has revealed that the quality of writing is in bad shape, and that this matters a lot. http://tc.eserver.org/27732.html http://tc.eserver.org/27732.html On average two thirds of employees spend approximately 80% of their time writing emails and other documents at work. http://tc.eserver.org/27525.html http://tc.eserver.org/27525.html The 'winner', a runner-up, and two honorable mentions for the 2004 'worst manual' competition. http://tc.eserver.org/26209.html http://tc.eserver.org/26209.html There is, at present, no common definition of quality in technical communication--no common set of quality measurements for our profession. http://tc.eserver.org/24748.html http://tc.eserver.org/24748.html Can elements of the ISO 9000 standard help us improve the quality of the documents we write? http://tc.eserver.org/24749.html http://tc.eserver.org/24749.html To bring high-quality communication to the process to improve the quality of the products we produce. http://tc.eserver.org/24746.html http://tc.eserver.org/24746.html Quality can not simply be measured at the end of the project. The end of the project is too late. http://tc.eserver.org/24747.html http://tc.eserver.org/24747.html We need to know what quality is to develop a metric to measure it. http://tc.eserver.org/24745.html http://tc.eserver.org/24745.html Looking at the evolution of quality may help to explain how we got to this point. http://tc.eserver.org/24686.html http://tc.eserver.org/24686.html This progression is sponsored by the STC Quality Professional Interest Committee. Each subgroup within the Quality PIC is sponsoring a discussion table, with additional topics of special interest to technical communicators. These topics have been selected based on their timeliness and practical value to practicing technical communicators. http://tc.eserver.org/24520.html http://tc.eserver.org/24520.html If you provide after the sale customer service reluctantly, or delegate it to outsourced, but cheaper, providers, you're making a huge mistake. Customer service generates revenue via word of mouth, cross-sell and up-sell opportunities, and repeat purchases by satisfied customers. http://tc.eserver.org/24414.html http://tc.eserver.org/24414.html Inspections are apart of the rebirth of Total Quality Management directed at customer satisfaction. Although inspecting documents takes extra time and fortitude, the rewards far outweigh the investment. A formal inspection process improves the quality of documents and reduces costs over the long term. Through early defect detection, inspections have proven their value time and time again. In this workshop, we will share inspection process guidelines used at Bull Information Systems, and raise issues related to inspections. http://tc.eserver.org/24343.html http://tc.eserver.org/24343.html If an agency is lax in their attention to detail on an important invitation for themselves, well, what is there to reassure me that they'll cross the T's and dot the I's when it comes to my projects? http://tc.eserver.org/24338.html http://tc.eserver.org/24338.html How do you ensure that business software systems will be good quality, i.e. they will meet the business need and have few bugs? How might 'testing' be perforned at the requiremenst and design stages? http://tc.eserver.org/24322.html http://tc.eserver.org/24322.html Quality continues to be a hot topic among technical communicators, generating vigorous debate and commentary on the STC Quality SIG listserv and in notes to the Quality SIG manager in response to articles in the SIG newsletter or on the SIG website. Some common themes of interest include: how to measure quality, what role technical communicators can play in the ISO 9000 documentation process, how to reduce rework and minimize errors in documentation by developing flexible plans and processes, and how the STC value-added research can help us develop quality metrics for our information. http://tc.eserver.org/24314.html http://tc.eserver.org/24314.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/23736.html http://tc.eserver.org/23736.html Traditionally, verification of documentation procedure accuracy follows a standard model: technical communicators prepare a draft, which is submitted to subject matter experts for review. This process hinges on a number of factors that can adversely affect the quality of the review. Higher quality reviews are conducted by staff tasked specifically to test and review the draft procedures, and supply specific feedback by means of an established procedure. A well-established method of documentation testing provides several benefits to an organization. These include customer satisfaction, reduced costs, improved overall product quality, and improved document draft correction. http://tc.eserver.org/23587.html http://tc.eserver.org/23587.html Total Quality Management (TQM), is now very much a feature of many organizations. One of the kernels of TQM is the process, with its related topics such as process design, process management and process improvement. One of the key requirements for process design and management is process measurements, often called 'metrics'. Within the document design and development process, process metrics, including quality metrics, must be based very strongly on customer values for documentation. Quality metrics can form one element within a composite customer satisfaction index for documentation projects. http://tc.eserver.org/23588.html http://tc.eserver.org/23588.html Information product quality has long been considered undefinable, but that must change if we are ever to improve the quality of our work beyond present levels. Information product quality can usefully be defined as measurable conformance to requirements. Requirements come from three sources: customers, clients, and professional standards. By determining our customers' and clients' critical needs, we can devise conformance metrics. This formulation can be applied in the context of many organizational quality improvement programs, such as benchmarking, continuous improvement, ISO 9000, and (with reservations) Six Sigma. http://tc.eserver.org/23586.html http://tc.eserver.org/23586.html Managers of technical publications require quantitative measures of quality for their organizations' products. The Project on Writing Quality at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute produced an experimental formula that measures some indicators of quality in technical writing, such as logical relationships in procedural material and human agents as sentence subjects. http://tc.eserver.org/23481.html http://tc.eserver.org/23481.html Executives as well as customers demand quality from technical communicators. However, the requirements of both groups seem hard to combine: Executives want quality to be achieved inside the company by applying quality standards without causing any delay or additional costs. Establishing customer-based quality, on the other hand, usually demands extra money and extra time. Nevertheless both demands can and should be utilized for developing a user-oriented quality system. http://tc.eserver.org/23384.html http://tc.eserver.org/23384.html Quality Systems (QS) have become essential for (inter-)national competition. Companies spend large amounts of money for 'measuring' quality defined by national and international standards. Quality, however, is a value, and like creeds and ideologies values cannot be measured with scientific exactness and are difficult to control. Total Quality Management (TQM) and other standardized concepts take that idealistic dimension into account. Certification according to ISO 9000, for instance, covers only about 50% of a TQM implementation. http://tc.eserver.org/23393.html http://tc.eserver.org/23393.html Executives as well as customers demand quality from technical communicators. However, the requirements of both groups seem hard to combine: Executives want quality to be achieved inside the company by applying quality standards without causing any delay or additional costs. Establishing customer-based quality, on the other hand, usually demands extra money and extra time. Nevertheless both demands can and should be utilized for developing a user-oriented quality system. http://tc.eserver.org/23408.html http://tc.eserver.org/23408.html Technical communicators have always been proud of the quality of their work. Can it be that we are overdoing it? Do we need to change our understanding of what we do? Is readiness to compromise and economize to keep pace more important today than perfecting our work? http://tc.eserver.org/22923.html http://tc.eserver.org/22923.html The expressed promise in the title of Producing Quality Technical Information is that following its prescriptions will yield 'quality' technical information. This commentary asks what the term quality means here and whether the manual delivers on its promise. In other words, which of the several senses of quality is intended in the title, and the does the publication deliver as promised? That is, which of the major quality schemes corresponds to the rationale of the text: legalistic quality, in which quality is conformity to a long list of detailed regulations and specifications (as in ISO 9000); principle-based quality, in which quality is the result of working according to a small set of broad precepts; or mystical quality, in which quality is an indefinable property or spiritual construct, toward which virtuous people should aspire. http://tc.eserver.org/22890.html http://tc.eserver.org/22890.html Creativity is critical to every aspect of our lives. Without it, we're susceptible to burnout, boredom, and (gasp!) bad writing. Creativity leads to improved productivity and innovation, superior problem-solving, and a more enjoyable life. We can enhance our creativity by giving ourselves permission to be creative, by not being judgemental, and by practicing. http://tc.eserver.org/22887.html http://tc.eserver.org/22887.html This progression is sponsored by the STC Quality Professional Interest Committee. Each subgroup within the Quality PIC is sponsoring a discussion table, with additional topics of special interest to technical communicators. These topics have been selected based on their timeliness and practical value to practicing technical communicators. http://tc.eserver.org/21230.html http://tc.eserver.org/21230.html Quality is defined as customer satisfaction, and an information product can be online or paper. With this in mind, basic steps in developing one kind of quality information product – online help – include: determine contents in terms of resources and user needs, develop a style guide, develop a prototype, test and redesign, and be open to change. It is easy to adapt these steps to apply to any information product. Quality is even further assured by placing these steps into a quality improvement process model context that includes identifying outputs, determining customers and customer requirements, converting requirements into processes, measuring outputs, and evaluating results. http://tc.eserver.org/20309.html http://tc.eserver.org/20309.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/20286.html http://tc.eserver.org/20286.html The only way to ensure quality is to build the quality awareness into every aspect of your life and work. This paper tries to combine the two methods of ensuring quality: with the right process and with the right measurement. http://tc.eserver.org/19932.html http://tc.eserver.org/19932.html This essay explores the question: 'Given the high value that most institutions put on scholarship that appears in refereed journals or in books produced by well-respected presses, how are innovative, intellectually valuable, well-researched, self-published Web sites to be counted in the processes of promotion, merit, tenure, review, and recognition?' http://tc.eserver.org/19838.html http://tc.eserver.org/19838.html Members of the STC Quality Special Interest Group (SIG) present a realistic look at Quality in today’s hectic business climate. Based on their experiences, you will gain insight into ways to improve documentation quality, establish processes to assist the improvement, and an understanding how outside forces can impact your documentation efforts. They will look at what is meant by quality, how it’s determined and measured; processes, techniques and basic tools that can be used to improve quality; and the impact of international standards on corporate policies and procedures. A case study will highlight some of the barriers, problems, and successes experienced by an organization in implementing a quality system for monitoring its documentation. http://tc.eserver.org/19875.html http://tc.eserver.org/19875.html We produce numerous manuals pertaining to telecommunications and, although we routinely devote much energy to reducing the number of problems occurring during the production process, this time we took up the challenge of eliminating the occurrence of problems altogether. Here, we overview the characterisitics of problems occurring at the company, profile their occurrence by process, and review a few corrective measures. http://tc.eserver.org/19826.html http://tc.eserver.org/19826.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/19793.html http://tc.eserver.org/19793.html In this interactive session, we will lead technical communicators through a process of setting up and conducting a study to find out how much support is costing their organization or their clients’ organizations. We will also help technical communicators cost-justify their work by estimating reductions in support costs. We will help them plan case studies to show how highquality technical communications can reduce support calls and costs. http://tc.eserver.org/19800.html http://tc.eserver.org/19800.html Most companies are trying to improve their products, services, and processes. As a result, numerous buzzwords are flying around these days: TQM, ISO 9000, IEEE, SEI, standards, procedures, methodologies, models, registration, and compliance. How can the technical communicator assist in the assessment and selection of a quality program and policy? This paper takes a look at the steps the Telecommunications division of Carnegie Group, Inc. (CGI) took to establish its quality program and the role of the technical communicator in this process. http://tc.eserver.org/19718.html http://tc.eserver.org/19718.html Have you done something halfway, hoping the effort would be enough to get you by? When it comes to getting organized, I’m guilty of the half-hearted effort. Let me be the first to tell you that halfway doesn’t cut it. http://tc.eserver.org/14695.html http://tc.eserver.org/14695.html Hart discusses ways that technical communicators can simultaneously improve the quality of their documentation, increase the speed with which it is produced, and lessen the costs of producing it. http://tc.eserver.org/14708.html http://tc.eserver.org/14708.html Cameron discusses the effects of three models of quality cultures in American and European corporations: error detection cultures, error prevention cultures, and creative quality cultures. http://tc.eserver.org/14614.html http://tc.eserver.org/14614.html Karl Smart highlights several Web sites about quality and quality issues that technical communicators may want to browse. http://tc.eserver.org/14716.html http://tc.eserver.org/14716.html Smart summarizes the history and purpose of the Malcolm Baldridge Award. Given annually by the National Institute for Standards and Technology, the Baldridge Award recognizes companies that show an organization-wide concern for improving quality.