Wonder Writer:  Putting Inconsistency Away

by Debbie Kerr, Quill Editor

I couldn't ask members to be creative if I didn't attempt to be creative myself. 

The Prologue 

It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. Technical writer Paige Turner was happy to find a job; the problem was that she had been brought in too late in the process. In a dream world, technical writers should be part of projects right from the beginning, but this was the real world and Paige was no ordinary writer. 

The Main Character

Paige had seen a lot in her time. With over 15 years of documentation experience, she knew her way around a project. She knew the right questions and she knew how to use them. She recognized that not all Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) could be approached in the same way. They all had their own perks, and it was part of her job to learn what made them tick. If she was to get the answers she needed, she had to determine what rewards/bribes could be used to get the information she needed, when she needed it. A wrong bribe or bad timing could spell disaster for a project. She had to be the "consistency enforcer" in a world where free form and variety were encouraged at the wrong times. She had to face ridicule and resistance. She had to try and get changes made at the end of a cycle. She had to save the users from a design worse than death. 

The Subject Matter Expert (SME)

Mark was no ordinary SME. He had a brain and he wasn't afraid to use it. He liked creating new screen designs. He liked the power he felt when some carefully placed code brought his ideas to life. When someone described the functionality needed, he could see that functionality in his mind and he would race to make it happen. He was confident that his code was clean and he had produced something that met all the business requirements. He had done his job and done it well. 

The Timelines and the Players

Like all projects, there was a definite schedule for completing each task in the cycle -- business requirements, specifications, programming, and writing. Unfortunately, each of these deliverables was completed sequentially without any concern for consistency. To make matters worse, each person was given a portion of the tasks to complete. A project manager controlled the process and ensured that the deliverables were completed on time, but no one was checking the deliverables for consistency.

The Rewards 

When Paige started her job, it quickly became apparent that she could not document the product as it was developed. She knew she had to approach the project manager and make a case for changing the interface instead of trying to document around it. Paige knew that if she could have some design changes implemented, the end result would be a cleaner product that was much easier to use and understand. This would pay dividends down the road when decisions were made about continuing with the product or when other companies asked clients for recommendations. A poorly-designed product could ultimately mean the loss of countless clients.

The Culprit

In a world of bad documentation and corresponding bad products, it was difficult to pinpoint exactly who or what was the culprit. Paige was no stranger to this world, and she knew that while there were many possible culprits, Inconsistency was often the ringleader to this string of disorganized crime. He had many helpers like Awkward Interface and his close relative Non-intuitive Design, but Paige had discovered that once Inconsistency was removed, his partners in crime seemed to disappear. 

The Secret Weapon

Although Paige was called a technical writer, she was really a user advocate in disguise. Paige had an eye for detail and she could see through inconsistencies. She could see potential problems and jumped to new heights to come up with solutions. She was the champion of consistent field names and straight-forward navigation. By being consistent, users had less to learn and could get through a lot more of the product in a shorter time. All this was done quietly and without fanfare so that users did not know who to thank for better products. So subtle was Paige's work that not even project managers were fully aware of what was happening. It turns out that Paige did not have a secret weapon. In fact, Paige was the secret weapon. 

The Conclusion

To wage a war against culprits like Inconsistency, every company needs a secret weapon like a technical writer, like our heroine, Paige Turner. To keep the battle short, it is better if companies deploy this secret weapon right from the start so that there are fewer inconsistencies and fewer casualties -- the SMEs, project managers, and users as well as the user interface and documentation. Everyone and everything gets hurt when Inconsistency is allowed free reign. Sometimes only a technical writer can put Inconsistency in its place.