CIDM Matters

CIDM Matters is an electronic newsletter published on the 1st and 15th of every month. Browse these articles published in CIDM Matters or subscribe to the newsletter by selecting the “Join Us” option on the navigation bar.

What consumers want from self-service customer support

Scott Abel, Heretto Content Wrangler
September 1, 2023

In 2023, The Content Wrangler and Heretto commissioned a survey of US consumers to collect data on their preferences and expectations. The survey sought to identify and understand common consumer thoughts about customer service and self-service support. […]

Where Do Technical Writers Belong?

headshot of smiling women with short dark hairDana Aubin, Comtech Services
August 15, 2023

In a recent CIDM Roundtable, we gathered to discuss where technical writers belong within the enterprise. To start the meeting, I shared that this question reminded me of a book from my childhood, Flap Your Wings by P. D. Eastman. In the book, a boy finds an egg on the bank. Seeing an empty nest in a tree, the boy assumes that is where the egg should be. […]

Celebrating Technical Communication Excellence: The CODiE Awards Best Knowledge Center/Help Site

Scott Abel, Heretto Content Wrangler
August 15, 2023

Far too often, the work of technical communicators fails to receive the recognition it deserves. Our teams are typically understaffed, underfunded, and under equipped. Our leaders sometimes need help connecting the value of what we produce to the experience prospective and existing customers encounter when interacting with our content.

There are no Academy Awards for technical documentation. That is, until now. […]

Communicating and Collaborating with a Global Project Team

Headshot of woman with long dark hairGeetha Haridas, Qualcomm
July 15, 2023

Technical Authors often work in cross-functional teams, which include one or more specialist groups such as development, testing, product management, program management, and marketing. These groups are interdependent and collaboration between the individual groups is essential for product completion.

In a cross-functional team, documents are designed and developed either by an individual author on a project or multiple authors handling different parts of the documentation (Hackos 1994). Authors are typically responsible for planning, scheduling, developing, and delivering documentation. Authors coordinate with developers, testers, and other subject matters to ensure the validity and accuracy of content (Hart-Davidson 2001). They also work with project managers to ensure that they deliver documentation according to the schedule. […]

CIDM Sponsor Profile – DeltaXML

DeltaXML
July 1, 2023

Calming the Cacophony of Content Changes

If there’s one thing that never changes, it’s that everything changes. The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus saw the world as constantly in flux and is often quoted as coining the phrase “Change is the only constant.” The same could be said to be true about technical documentation. No sooner is one release complete before you’re working on the next and everything that seemed to be stable starts to change again.

But how can you be sure that you have control over the changes that are being made? How can you know that the latest update contains only the necessary changes without unintended changes slipping in? How can you evidence changes requested by a regulator in a reliable, satisfactory, traceable way? […]

CIDM Sponsor Profile – DCL

DCL logo: cube on the left and words DCL Data Conversion LaboratoryData Conversion Laboratory Inc
June 15, 2023

Content Structure: The Building Blocks of Innovation

Foundations for Success

All organizations have deep, growing archives of content. From historical documents and photographs to new research articles and product documentation, this content comes in many different forms, yet it can all be mined to create valuable resources for today’s digital-first consumers.

However, content can only unlock new opportunities for organizations if it has a foundation of rich structure and metadata. Simply having information in a digital format, such as a Word file or an image-based PDF, is not enough. For content to be easily discovered and used via modern platforms, it must be converted into a multidimensional XML format from which machines can extract pertinent information. […]

CIDM Sponsor Profile – Fluid Topics

Fluid Topics' logoAnne-Sophie Lardet
May 15, 2023 

 

Technical documentation has never been more important to the success of an organization.

But at the same time, delivering technical documentation has never been more challenging. Whether it is maintaining pace with product and feature updates, the outputs of different authoring tools and systems across different content creation teams, or serving the right information wherever the consumer expects it, all too often the end-user experience is incomplete or inconsistent. […]

CIDM Sponsor Profile – Kaleidoscope

colorful box next the words Kaleidoscope - Taking your content globalKaleidoscope.at/en/
May 1, 2023

Seven Thoughts on Efficient Translator Query Management

Decades of experience have shown that translators are excellent usability testers for any kind of text. In their quest for understanding, they often uncover passages that may be ambiguous or unclear. Yes, this can be a hassle to manage, but look at it this way: if your translator does not even understand a text, how can your reader? In other words, solving translator queries has a positive impact on both the source text and the translation! And what if instead of struggling with piles of queries in MS Excel, e-mails, or ticketing systems, you could manage translator queries efficiently and collaboratively? Would this not also be a valuable addition to your quality management system AND save you time and money? We think so! […]

CIDM Sponsor Profile – RWS

Arpita Maity, RWS
April 15, 2023

Driving powerful search with knowledge graphs

Search should be about getting people to complete their mission. Search has evolved just as consumers have in their quest for ease of use. As technology has evolved, so has the search to help people achieve more and more complex tasks. Today consumer expectations are such that search is not limited to just text but also in more advanced formats such as voice, AR/VR, or chatbots. […]

Estimating Documentation Projects

Headshot of woman with long dark hairGeetha Haridas, Qualcomm
April 15, 2023

Estimation is often an overlooked aspect of the documentation development lifecycle, particularly in environments that require authors to work reactively and meet multiple deadlines in short timescales. Though some amount of project uncertainty is inevitable, failure to estimate documents can have a major impact on the quality of documentation produced. For example, authors might absorb too much last-minute work and might not have time to self-check their documentation, which consequently impacts the quality of work they produce.

Therefore, before agreeing to deadlines, it is extremely important to assess the time and effort required to complete a project and then plan the work schedule. It is also essential to ensure that the projects are not estimated based on individual experience and the estimates are relevant for all authors involved, especially if a project involves multiple authors. […]

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