Maybe you don’t hear your accent, but others do. When you read their documents, does the accent come through?

We all judge people by how they speak. It’s easy.

When I was a kid, I had a strong regional accent. I grew up near the countryside and thought that was the way people spoke. Well, we all did.

When I went to college, a teacher told us to polish our accents if we wanted to get ahead. He was right.

Name one CEO or world figure with a strong regional accent? It gets ironed out along the way.

Today, I have hardly any accent.

Years of trying to smooth out the rough edges and blend in have diluted what was there. Most think I’m American, French (dunno!) or Russian (they go by the name, I guess).

Seth Godin asks if your writing has an accent?

“Of course it can. Not just grammar errors, but sentence length, exclamation marks and your vocabulary all tag you. And the fonts, colors, pictures and layouts you choose are part of your accent as well.”

So, here’s my question.

When you review other people’s documents, what can you tell about them? Does the way they ‘speak’ influence the decisions you make based on their material?

Flip it around.

When they read your documents, what do they think?

“Don’t worry” she said. “No one reads this stuff anyway. Just get it done.” Sounds familiar?

These were the words a former Project Manager once told me. I’d written 20,000 words for a banking system – and no-one would read it.

What do you do when your own company has such a poor view of tech docs?

Are you wasting your time?

Does anyone actually read them?

Sure, they must.

Well, how do you know?

Creating a training plan? Before you do this, you need to step a step back and work out what your colleagues need to learn.

Why?

Well, otherwise, you risk developing a training plan that overlooks the areas where people really need to skill up.

The advantage of a well-developed training is that it lets you focus your skills, as a trainer, and match the training course to the audience.

One way I do this is to develop a Target Audience Questionnaire.

Download: Free Target Audience Questionnaire

What is a Target Audience Questionnaire?

Audience Analysis is used to profile, i.e. learn about, your target audience, so that you can then offer better products, services, training, books or whatever… that match their specific requirements. This is different than gathering requirements, which is more a wish list, of what people want.

Audience Analysis is a snapshot of what your users/readers/viewers etc are doing here and now. Marketing plans also use these to get an better understanding of how to segment their audiences.

For technical writers and trainers, you can use this Target Audience Questionnaire when developing your next set of documents or training plan.

What’s important is that you see the value in this activity.

The more you know about your target audience, the more likely your material will suits their needs.

So, let’s get started.

What goes into a Target Audience Questionnaire?

You need to cover four sections in your questionnaire: document details, objective, experience, tasks.

1. Document Details

The first page of the questionnaire—usually near the header—captures information related to the actual document, for example, the name of the course, the individual, date, and department. Depending on your project, you may want to adjust this to suit your needs.

Some technical writers use version controls on their documents, as well as the document’s status, for example, Draft, Revised, Final or Approved.

Course:

Name:

Date:

Department:

2.Objectives

In the objective section, describe the goal of this questionnaire.

• Who are the project stakeholders for this project?
• Who is been asked to complete this questionnaire?
• What is your motive for doing this?
• What is the benefit to the reader?
• When does this questionnaire need to be completed by?
• Where will the information be kept, share, distributed, and archived?
• Why should the reader/user/employee complete this questionnaire? Is it compulsory? Is there a date by when this must be completed?
• How does this questionnaire fit into the company’s overall strategy?

Sample text:

“To help us provide the most appropriate the training to our employees—so you have the necessary skills, knowledge and confidence in your own abilities—please study the following questions and answer them to the best of your abilities.”

The questionnaire must be completed by [date].

The questionnaire is approved by the [project board].

Contact [identify the person] if you have any queries about this questionnaire.

3. Level of Experience

Identify your level of expertise with these tools based on a scale of 1 to 5.

(1=No Experience; 5=Extremely Experienced).

1.         Adobe Acrobat (not Acrobat Reader)

2.         Adobe FrameMaker

3.         AuthorIT

4.         DocBook

5.         DocToHelp

6.         DreamWeaver

7.         Epic Editor

8.         ForeHelp

9.         Interleaf

10.       MadCap Blaze

11.       Madcap Flare

12.       Microsoft Excel

13.       Microsoft Visio

14.       Microsoft Visio

15.       Microsoft Word

16.       RoboHelp

17.       Techsmith Camtasia

18.       Techsmith Snagit

19.       WebWorks

20.       XML editor

4. Tasks & Activities

Please indicate all answers that are applicable to your role.

1. How often are you asked to provide [technical documents/status reports/management reports etc]?

(a) Several times a day

(b) Several times a week

(c) Several times a month

2. What format (s) do you provide the information in?

Charts

Diagrams

Documents

Maps

Pivots tables

PowerPoint

Verbal

3. What is the nature of these requests?  (If possible, please provide examples of each item indicated)

(a) Summary (e.g. totals, averages, status etc.)

(b) Detailed (specific lists, inquiries regarding specific projects, documents, releases etc.)

(c) Operational

(d) Analytical

(e) Other (this may include revisions, merging, editing, publishing, translating, re-formatting, printing etc)

Once you have these in place, you can then begin to write your documents or start developing that training plan.

Does that make sense?

What do you think?

How can I improve this plan and make it better?

Downloads

Business Requirements Template

Functional Requirements Specification Template

Gordon McLean asks: do you plan to review your plan?

This is in relation to the Documentation Plan (aka Information Development Plan) that most technical writers prepare in advance of starting a major project. Granted, on smaller projects you can get away with this if you know the product, have the resources and the deliverables are nailed down.

But, his point is that the plan itself should be reviewed/updated during the project lifecycle. Or, at least, that’s how I read it.

Why create a Documentation Plan?

Gordon outlines some valid reasons:

1. Planning drives a discussion about the content, audience and deliverables.
2. Not reviewing your progress to the plan throughout is a waste, but I guess you could get away with it.
3. Planning can provide more than just a set of deadlines.
4. Set the direction and make sure everyone knows what they need to do to get there.
5. Drive discussion around the deliverables and the audience of the information.
6. Revisiting your plan throughout the project will help keep you from losing sight of the woods for all those trees.

More at: http://www.onemanwrites.co.uk/2009/10/07/do-you-plan-to-review-your-plan/

I have a slightly different take on this.

Hope I’m not splitting hairs here but, once the plan is published, I use it in the same way I use my Project Plans. For example, I send out status reports to the project stakeholders and flag issues as they arise.

But, I don’t review the plan once it has been signed off.

I would only do this if the deliverables changed. And, at that point, re-issue an updated Documentation Plan, asking for sign-offs etc.

Likewise, if someone left the team, it would be updated and circulated to the team, highlighting where this may impact the schedule and/or other risks.

I started to use Documentation Plans (in a more intentional way) when working in the US, partly as the PM demanded more visibility on deliverables and budgets.

At first, it was a pain. But, once I saw the value, it made sense and we (the technical writer team) scheduled meetings twice a week. It was project within a project, so to speak. They gave me their status reports, I collated them, and then passed it to the PM.

Resource Requirements:  Documentation Plan Template

How to use a Documentation Plan

Klariti has some tips on using a documentation plan / information development plan:

1. Assign an individual for every data repository. Identify roles and responsibilities.
2. Create procedures for creating, updating and revising documents.
3. Create a Master Document Plan List. Capture each technical document your team writes, updates and archives.
4. Identify the software requirements for the project success; this includes specialized authoring software for creating online help or content for mobile devices.
5. Identify security issues such as access to building, swipe cards, access to secure data resources, and travel requirements for international projects.
6. Create procedures for identifying and removing invalid and/or obsolete documents; define procedures for transferring archived documents to storage facilities. 10 Things Your Documentation Plan Should Know
7. Establish procedures for reviewing and approving documents prior to issue.
8. Identify and retain documents for legal and/or contractual purposes, for example, to comply with Sarbanes Oxley requirements.
9. Maintains master documents in a secure environment.
10. Establish the writer’s requirements, which in addition to the hardware, software, and technical requirements, includes access to reviewers to provide feedback and commentary on the actual documents.

You also need to ensure that you have covered licensing costs and established access controls to networks, software, and offices locations where necessary.

http://www.klariti.com/documentation-plan-template/10-Things-Your-Documentation-Plan-Should-Know.shtml

Documentation Plan Template

You can download a Documentation Plan template here:

http://www.klariti.com/documentation-plan-template/index.shtml

Some questions for you!

Do you use a Documentation Plan for your tech writing projects?

If not, how do you manage timelines, budgets, and deliverables?

If you do use them, what is the most important part to focus on?