Original Source - STC Management Sig Directives; Volume 9, Issue 3: http://www.stcsig.org/mgt/news/July2005Directives.pdf

By Mark Attew, Technical Documentation Manager, XDimensional Technologies, Inc.

When I was promoted from lone writer to Manager of the Technical Documentation team at my small start-up software company, I was faced with many challenges. Aside from the fact that this was my first position leading a team (albeit small) of technical communicators, there were other issues I had to face:  

• Building a team from the ground up  
• Creating a department name  
• Devising mission and vision statements  
• Deciding where and how to manage content  
• Creating procedures for managing work requests  
• What materials I needed to purchase to support my team.

While tackling the major issues of building the department, our CEO (an alumnus of other successful start-up companies) decided the company needed a “resource center” where employees could get books and information ...

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Click the links below to view PowerPoint presentations on the creation of diagrams and a diagram style guide that were presented at the 2004 Society for Technical Communication conference. Both define the standards developed by the Operations Documentation team and used by EarthLink, Inc. for their internal data center infrastructure documentation to assure consistency in deliverables by Technical Communicators.

• Click this link to view the PowerPoint presentation, "Setting Visual Standards With a Diagram Style Guide" that I presented with my colleagues at the STC conference and to EarthLink employees as requested.
• Click this link to view the PowerPoint presentation, "Block Diagramming for Dummies" that I presented at the STC conference and to EarthLink employees as requested.