In modern world many companies developing software and electronics increasingly face with a question: who should write the technical documentation? There are only three answers: to hire a technical writer, to appeal to a freelancer or to charge this job with an outsourcing technical writing company.
Creating a full-time position of a technical writer
This variant is suitable for large firms, where the volume of production is high, and the constant modernization of the model line is carried out. Therefore, there appears the necessity not only to actualize the technical documentation on the long time working devices or programs, but also to continuously develop new documentation on their next versions and all the newly created equipment.
In addition to numerous guidelines and instructions it is required to continuously update the data on all the company resources: website, online store, company news and so on. Such a huge amount of work is usually performed by more than one person, and sometimes even by the full-fledged team of technical writers.
Also another situation may happen, when one person is push upon critical volume of work, and the writer is very limited in time. If the workload is stable, it is rationally to seek for the technical writing services of one more regular specialist, but if the volumes will soon decrease, it is better to appeal to the outsourcing.
Appeal to the freelancer
A stranger, found most often through the Internet, cannot be trusted with anything serious and responsible, regardless of the profile and portfolio. There are several reasons: there is no guarantee that the work will be done on time, that it will have a good quality and that it will generally be accomplished! If the data have even the minimum requirements for privacy – their transferring to a freelancer is out of the question. Of course, signing of the non-disclosure agreement with a physical person is possible, but it does not really protect you in case of transferring your data to the third parties.
Outsourcing
For most companies, this variant is the optimal by the ratio of cost/quality/speed. Client transfers all the necessary materials to an executor and gets the fully completed technical documentation package.
In rare cases, the company’s technical writer travels to a customer and consults with the developers, but the main work is performed remotely. Accordingly, the customer does not spend money on permanent wages of employees (on salary, taxes and social benefits) and pays only for the work that was actually performed for him. This option is not yet very popular because until recently there were no technical writing outsourcing companies specializing particularly on technical texts.
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