Earlier we talked about the “critical” and “current” need in technical documentation. It is important for management to understand the situation with the technical texts in the company and, on this basis, to calculate what financial and human resources should be allocated to this area.
A company produces one program, gradually upgrading it, but there is no technical writer in the company and, accordingly, there is no qualitative documentation.
There is a large amount of the start work, which will sharply decrease, as all the basic documentation will be written. In the future, it will be necessary just to update it gradually. In this case, the outsourcing technical writing services are preferable – initially firm invests a significant sum, receives the documentation package, and subsequently the costs fall to a minimum – the payment is made only for some minor modifications.
A company produces one program gradually updating it but a technical writer resigns for the personal reasons and there is no one to update the documents.
The documentation is ready, the updates are minimal, so to keep a person on a permanent position is not profitable – it is reasonable to give a job to the technical writing outsourcing expert, as the amount of work and, accordingly, the pay for it will not be significant.
A company produces one program, but there are plans on the soon expanding of its range.
Irrespective of the current state of documentation, at the release of a new product a lot of work on establishing the necessary guidelines, descriptions, technical specifications, etc. will appear. But after the peak of the work a lull comes again. Based on the planned expansion, it is possible to make a choice: if one or two products are added – the task is better to be given to the outsource contractor, if the series expands significantly – it makes sense to hire a full-time writer.
A company is oriented on several directions and the new programs are constantly creating.
There is a lot of documentation and it is constantly updated, so if the work is transferred to the third firm, the costs will be significant. By the way, the problems with “understanding” by the Executive outsourcing employees of all the subtleties of the manufactured product may arise. The best solution is hiring one or a few regular writers.
It is also necessary to consider the advertising activity of a company – whether the surveys, analytical articles, advertising materials are published. If the volume of these materials is great – the adoption of technical writer to the staff is expedient, if not – it is easier to give it to the technical writing company developing the rest of the documentation.
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