Project definition
Define your technical documentation project before writing: identify the audience, scope, deliverables, and success criteria to guide the entire editorial process.
Definition
Section titled “Definition”A technical writing project adds value to products and helps the company market its offerings more effectively. As with R&D or marketing projects, project definition is key to estimating the budget and benefits.
Why it matters
Section titled “Why it matters”Communicating technical information without understanding the audience or purpose is futile. Before initiating a technical writing project, it is essential to clearly define its parameters.
Key principles
Section titled “Key principles”Specifically, you need to determine:
| Element | Description |
|---|---|
| Its goal | Increase company awareness, boost media coverage, encourage prospects to contact the company, reduce technical support costs, etc. |
| Its scope | Which TopicThe smallest autonomous, titled unit of information in DITA XML, typed as concept, task, or reference and assembled into documents via ditamaps.View in glossary →, products, or versions are covered and which are excluded, the expected length or depth, and how scope decisions are made and revised. |
| Its target | General public, journalists, prospects, customers, etc. |
| Its format | White paper, instruction manual, user guide, brochure, flyer, website, company magazine, in print or online, etc. |
| Its language | Depending on your field of activity and target markets, the project may need to be available in multiple languages. |
| Its distribution channel | The final document can be published on an Internet or Extranet site, sent as an attachment by email, delivered in person in paper format, etc. |
| Its success criteria | How the goal’s impact will be measured after publication: support-ticket deflection, page views, reader satisfaction, sales-enablement usage, etc. |
To record these parameters for your project, use the documentation project plan template.
Once these parameters are defined, the next step is gathering information from all relevant sources. Analyzing project results then provides valuable information for further improving the impact of subsequent projects.