bookmark_borderYe olde blog

OK, perhaps if I head back to some previous “unblocking” techniques I might be able to kick start my blogging mojo.

Remember when Referrer Searches were all the rage? Back when we all suddenly discovered that our blogs were being indexed by something called “Google” (weird name…) and that meant we could see how people came to find our blogs? Those were the days, eh!!

So, aprop… ohh I’ve done that…

So, without further ado here are the top 12 search referrals (slightly filtered):

  1. gordon mclean
  2. itunes stuttering
  3. my mother is an idiot
  4. how to make a cup of tea
  5. how to kung fu withdraw testicles
  6. jamie bulger email
  7. 37signals apps
  8. monitor rss start torrent
  9. recipes for chicken with red pesto
  10. one mans blog.com
  11. voyeuer nature
  12. mrmen

To be fair, there are multiple variations on “red pesto chicken“, as well as “iTunes stutter“, and “how to make tea” but they fail to knock a good old ego search off the top of the list. And no, it’s not me googling myself… honest.

I should also apologise, again, to my mother for calling her an idiot, and I should point out that I no longer use ANY of the 37signals apps that I seemed to be so bothered about last year.

And, finally, I have NO idea how to “kung fu withdraw testicles” but it sure sounds like something that would come in handy… at some point… if my testicles were under threat I mean…

I think I’ll stop there.

Now, what should I do for my next post?

bookmark_borderSneaky

The scene is a small darkly lit room. On the desk sits a lamp and a computer screen glows. A man sits in front of the screen, staring intently. Lost in his thoughts…

Bloody hell.

Can’t be right.

Can’t.

Shit.

It is.

Where’s that list?

No, the other one.

OK, here we go.

1 of those.

5 of those.

2 of those.

Hmmm need to get that thing elsewhere.

And that.

Crap, that too.

Plenty of time really.

Calendar isn’t that ful… ohh crap it is.

Maybe that will do.

Yeah that’ll do.

So will that.

Ohh and that’s perfect.

Wow, I think I’m done!

Woo hooo, time for a beer.

With that, the man pushes himself back from the desk. Stands, stretches and heads off to the fridge.

Christmas shopping online.

bookmark_borderCan you tell?

A quick stroke of the chin, a flicker of the eyes round the table, a slight linger before flicking your cards flat.

Or in my case a ‘woooop’, a fist punching the air and a little victory dance. OK, maybe not.

I’m still learning the basics of Poker but far more interesting to me is the subtle tactical and psychology side. To bluff or not, to show your hand or not, when to raise the stakes, when to try and lull in your opponents, when to play a hand, when not, there are so many subtle variables in the basic gameplay that rely on … well, almost a sneaky nature.

I can see why so many people enjoy playing the game, there is a certain personal thrill to be had when you win a hand by bluffing (managed that once!) and as it’s every man for himself then, obviously, the ego comes into play. I don’t yet have a ‘poker-face’ mind you and I think that’s my weakness so I’ll be trying out a few little tactics this evening.

Anyone else a poker fan? Any hints or tips?

bookmark_borderNews Headlines

Gosh, things are bad aren’t they. Awful. Credit Crunch apparently. No no, recession now. Or is it still a ‘downturn’? Hey it can’t be bad, did you hear the profit announcment from BP?

Enough of that, what about Brand and Ross? What a fuss! Fine them and be done with it. Everyone knows what they are like, and whilst that’s no excuse (and they should be dealt with) is it really the only news of the day?

What about the preview of Windows 7? No?

OK, a cat update. Last night he brought us a dead mouse and this morning, as I opened the front door to leave the house, he appeared with a tiny dead bird. Now I’ve had words with him about this before so he knew fine well that I would be taking the bird from him and disposing of it immediately.

I’m sorry but he needs to learn. Anyway, I have promised him that, the day he brings home a bloody magpie (in every sense of the word), he is free to de-feather, disembowel and generally torture the noisy thing all he likes.

And finally, Pro Evolution Soccer is taking some getting used to but it’s slowly winning me over.

Ummmmm.

So.

How are you?

bookmark_borderDriving Development

Recently Daniel Brolund posted an idea around something he termed User Guide Driven Development, it’s an interesting read and, you know what, he’s almost right.

Almost.

First up you should note that Daniel works for the company that created the application he name drops in his post, Bumblebee. However his approach did ring a few bells with me, as it would sit nicely alongside my belief that, when working in an agile development environment, you have to eschew traditional writing processes and aim to grab and pillage information from wherever you can, trickling into what will become the final publication.

What I’ve realised is that by partly adopting the process suggested by Daniel we, the technical writing team, can be involved right up front and the documentation can be one of the methods used to validate the software as it is being built.

In an Agile team, the emphasis is on Test Driven Development where a chunk of work, derived from a customer story, first has acceptance tests written for it before any coding can start. The aim of the developer is to make sure his code meets the acceptance tests. In our organisation the test team provide guidance and input to what those tests should be, but the onus is on the developer to make sure they write the tests first.

So what if we slip the technical writer into the mix? Well first up we can roll up a level to the requirements gathering point and rather than one or two developers talking to the customer to capture their requirements in the form of customer stories (with the customer being the ‘sponsor’ of the requirement and not always directly a customer of the functionality, for example in the case of a sales or marketing driven stream of work) instead the technical writer will be there to capture the stories and flesh them out to an appropriate level.

From there it should be easier to break the stories down into tasks, and as we act as user advocates, those tasks should better reflect the end user. Once the tasks are in place we can write up the documentation to that level alongside the creation of the acceptance tests and, with both tests and a few paragraphs describing the aim of the functionality (how it helps meet part of the overarching customer story), and how the functionality is expected to work (how the end user will use the functionality), then we have a very powerful way of ensuring requirements are met.

As it happens on the guys in my team is already working in this sort of manner and it’s going well. Yes it’s a mind shift for both the technical writer and the development team but it appears to be paying dividends. If everyone agrees we’ll roll it out across the other areas of development.

And then, finally, I will be able to claim that my department is running development! Mwuhahahaaa!!

OK, maybe not.

P.S. I’m aware some of my colleagues read this, don’t worry I know who you are, and you will be treated fairly when my team assume power…

bookmark_borderStop Writing Manuals

No-one reads the documentation anyway, so why do we persist in writing user guides, instruction manuals and all the other types of document-centric information silos that we all quietly loathe creating in the first place?

Unless you have a contractual agreement to compile information into a document, it’s our job to figure out how best to get the right information to the user at the right time. It’s down to us, no-one else.

And I, for one, have failed to do my best, instead I’ve hidden behind the usual arguments of “ohh but that was how it was when I got here”, or “we don’t get to speak to our users so it’s hard to know what they want”.

OK, so I’m deliberately setting out a pretty bleak scenario here and, like everything, your own situation is probably not that dire, or is certainly further towards the ‘good’ end of a sliding scale.

However, the fact remains that a lot of thought and effort goes into creating content and perhaps not enough is placed on the delivery of said content. The mediums of the past are still valid but are increasingly being replaced and (and this is important) these new mediums are part of customer expectation.

I need look no further than myself to give you an example.

I am fairly careful with my money in that I tend to do a lot of research before buying a product. Whilst I have just purchased an iPhone, I didn’t buy the first version because my research suggested it would’ve been a mistake.

Part of my research is, quite simply, to see what kind of supporting information exists for the product I’m considering purchasing. Can I download or view the product documentation, and if so, what format is it in? What about user forums or support websites? Knowledge bases and articles? The latter are, increasingly, higher up my preference list than the former to the point where I’m pretty sure I’d buy if it had no user guide but a thriving user/support forum.

That’s not to say that there isn’t a place for our old friend, the product manual, but I would suggest it is under threat. Previously, to receive validated and trusted product information, I’d go to the product manual or support staff, anything that was produced by the people that make the product.

Now?

Now, thanks to reputation systems (points system that users build up the more the offer to, and interact with, a website) and the ability to cross-check information quickly and easily on the internet, I am far more likely to trust a post or article written by a complete stranger.

The wisdom of the crowd comes into play here of course, the more people that use your product the better the chance of a unique and useful scenario being documented and published, but there is no reason why we, the technical writers, cannot insert ourselves into that stream. Refocussing why we deliver information is a crucial part of the changes taking place in our industry.

Because, to be frank, if we don’t start looking around and changing how we work, we may soon be redundant. In every sense of the word.