CIDM Matters

Kathy Madison, Comtech Services
November 1, 2021

Whenever I hear the word “change” or “change management,” I always think of David Bowie’s iconic song Changes. I’m not a huge fan of his music, but once you hear the melody of this song, it will stick in your head forever!

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes, (Turn and face the stranger), Ch-ch-Changes,

If only sticking or adopting change at work was that easy. During one of our CIDM managers’ roundtable sessions, folks shared some of their best practices for adopting a change.

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Bonnie Robinson, The OpenNMS Group
November 1, 2021

The OpenNMS Group, a wholly-owned subsidiary of NantHealth, is an open-source company that maintains the OpenNMS project, an open-source network monitoring platform. With an agile development environment, we take a “docs as code” approach, where, among other things, documentation builds integrate with those of the software. […]

Veronica Beck and Robert Perry, Salesforce.org
October 1, 2021

When technology is used for good, it can change the world. It can be one of the most powerful equalizers of our time, providing access to data, knowledge, and connections. Technology can also create barriers. When documentation is hard to understand, it can make intimidating technology even more frustrating. So how can we make our technical documentation accessible, approachable, and friendly? How do we ensure our documentation creates bridges rather than walls? […]

Suyog Ketkar, Autodesk
October 1, 2021

Of the many recent challenges I have faced and accomplished, one has had me tackle relatively more hurdles and obstacles. I have realized, facing challenges is proof that you are on the ‘write’ track — pun intended. One such challenge was delivering documentation to internal customers — also the subject-matter experts (SMEs) for the project. Here’s what I’ve learned: […]

Sean Watson, ServiceNow
September 15, 2021

It’s a daunting task to create a style guide. Style guides contain grammar standards, voice and tone guidelines, words to use and avoid, copy patterns, and the basics of your product brand. These documents can easily end up being so tedious that they’re difficult to use, or so light that they don’t address needs. They can also become outdated quickly, rendering them irrelevant. Here are some ideas to create a successful style guide. […]

Helene Segura, The Time Management Fixer
September 1, 2021

Productivity hacks and time management hacks are popular search terms on Google. Productivity and time management are topics that millions of people are interested in because they want to know how to be more effective and efficient with their time. Is there a better way to work? Is there a way to do more in less time? Is there a way to stop working around the clock? Do productivity hacks actually work? I get asked those questions all of the time because the go-getters I work with want to accomplish more, but they also want to have a life outside of work. […]

Tim Ludwig
September 1, 2021

You may remember us as easyDITA, but we’re Heretto now. Here’s the how, why, and what of that change.

The original mission of easyDITA was to harness the power of structured content to improve technical communication. Years down the road, we did that.

But, why stop there?

As stewards of structured content, we’ve been called to make an impact beyond just technical communication. Our mission is expanded now, grown up a bit to encompass all knowledge content. […]

Sairam Venugopalan, Qualcomm
August 1, 2021

Janaka had a technical degree to proudly hoot,
With erudite English acumen to boldly boot.
Even if it be that his semantic skills had no aberration,
They’d only been garnered as a medium of instruction.
This profile in the job jungle just shone brighter,
For him to don the hat of a technical content writer. […]

Research Team:
Rebekka Andersen, University of California, Davis and Carlos Evia, Virginia Tech
July 15, 2021

Are you in a management role, having overseen the process of hiring one or more entry-level or advanced-level technical communicators within the past five years? 

If yes, please take this survey to help us think through how technical communication education might evolve to better prepare students for entry-level content jobs and future leadership roles in the profession of technical communication. We are interested in learning from experts like you how the profession is changing and what skills and competencies you look for in new hires and why.   […]

Kathy Madison, Comtech Services
July 1, 2021

Are you creating localization-friendly content?  How has your content strategy evolved to support multiple languages and cultures? What challenges have you faced, and how have you addressed them? How did you go about choosing your localization partner? What tools are you using to make it easier for your writers to create international content? These were just a few of the topics discussed during a recent CIDM member roundtable discussion. […]