Changes in technical communications

Those of us who have worked in technical communications for any length of time have experienced numerous changes in our profession. Recently these changes have included decreased budgets, faster times to market, increased product complexity and localizing content for a global community. The impact on our ability to meet expectations have been and continue to be challenging to say the least.

There is a link in this article to an interesting paper by the Aberdeen Group that highlights this phenomenon. The future is upon us in technical communications to think "reuse" and "multi-channel publishing" when we author content. This is a new if we have been in the mindset of producing one documentation product independently of another, as has been the case in many technical writing departments. Fortunately, tools such as DITA are allowing this shift to take hold and help our profession provide cost-effective documentation for a competitive global market.