- By Michele Marques, Lead Information Developer, ITSM

Wow, what a week for conferences! Yesterday I dropped by the BMC virtual conference, and earlier this week I attended Lavacon.

BMC Virtual Conference: Simplify & Automate IT

The BMC virtual conference was a really cool way to check out information on a variety of IT topics without leaving my desk. I watched the presentation on The Future of IT Management. Then I dropped by the Dell booth in the exhibit hall, to see what they had to say about their experiences with BMC Remedy IT Service Management.

I didn't get into any conversations, but I scrolled through the conversations in the networking lounge and in some of the exhibit booths. People were talking about BMC products and everyone was excited about the virtual conference.

Although the conference took place on October 29, you can still drop by. You can view any of the presentations on demand, pick up literature from the exhibit hall, and see what people were talking about

Lavacon

Lavacon is a professional development conference for senior, lead, and management technical communicators - and for the past few years has been paired with a regional Project Management Institute conference. It's a great conference that includes sessions and workshops that I wouldn't get at other technical communications conferences.

Sessions that I attended included:

• Introduction to Strategic Planning by Alexandra Piacenza - There's only so much that she could cover in this brief session. Planning for innovation was especially interesting.
• Creativity session and Leadership workshop by Lisa DiTullio - Interesting ideas about promoting creativity. Lots of discussion about the difference between Management and Leadership.
• Zen and the Art of Managing Up by Emma Hamer - How many times do you run around in a tizzy, because your boss has an urgent request for information, and you have to figure out how to get the information? Emma had some great suggestions for ways to be proactive that can prevent these sort of disruptions.
• Strategies for Coping with User-Generated Content by Sarah O'Keefe - Sarah opened with the video United Breaks Guitars as the ultimate in user-generated content that a company wouldn't want and then moved on to talk about strategies to involve users in a positive way in your community.
• Influencing without Authority by Andrea Ames - Andrea has achieved a high level of influence that extends beyond technical communication.
• Critical Thinking Skills for Conflict Resolution by Bonni Graham - We played a conflict role-playing game that helped show how personal biases and personal goals affect how people act in conflict. I'm not sure yet whether this knowledge will help me deal with conflict. I was really bad at picking up on people's hidden agendas.
• Management Challenges with DITA by Jim Smith and Vivian Aschwandan - Whether you're a manager or a writer, some of the biggest challenges with DITA are knowing "what is a topic" and dealing with what they called "stealth topics" (such as tasks hidden in concepts).
• DITA 1.2 and the DITA Open Toolkit by Robert Andersonand Leigh White - Although this workshop was fraught with hardware challenges, I'm now eagerly awaiting some of the new features of DITA 1.2, especially the conref extensions.

At home, I've been trying to reduce my environmental footprint more and more. My town keeps adding more items to the recycling list and now they collect compostable materials. Although ready to say no to trash, I've reduced my garbage to a not-so-full garbage bag every two weeks. You're probably doing something similar. We switched our bulbs to compact florescent (CFL), and even switched from paper to cloth napkins.

I work as an information developer, and mostly I work on user and administrator guides. That means that I'm producing pages and pages of information. So, how do I reduce the number of pages being printed?

Reducing the amount of printed documentation sent to customers

Last fall, I asked: Are printed manuals a thing of the past? My iPod came with a small instructive brochure in the box, and the rest of the documentation was available online.

BMC Software customers can download software, instead of ordering a physical box. But customers have indicated that even when they get a physical kit, they don't need all the printed manuals. Now customers will get electronic copies of documentation, and will only get printed copies on request.

Working online instead of on paper

If you're not an information developer, you might think that all my work is always online. Of course, I do my writing on the computer. But reviews and proof reading used to take place in a mix of paper and online.

Now, almost all work is taking place online. We can do proof reading from the PDFs. I enable commenting in PDFs, so that editors and reviewers can add their comments even from Acrobat Reader. They don't have to print drafts of my guides. And as a bonus, it's easier for me to work from their online comments, because I don't have to decipher handwriting.

What are you doing?

What are you doing to reduce your environmental impact at work? I'd love to hear what else I could be doing.

For many years I've heard the debate over whether to include printed manuals with the products. It seems like the move to PDF, online help, wikis, and blogs must finally be making a dent in how much we print, because one of the printer manufacturers is running a big ad compaign in an attempt to get people to print more.

What sort of documentation do you get with the iPod?

Recently, I finally got an iPod. Of course, as a writer, I find myself paying attention to how they provide documentation, and it gives me some ideas for documentation minimalism. Even with their simple design, Apple includes a small printed manual. More of a mini-brochure with just a few basics to get started.

You have to go online to get a more complete manual. But what a great idea! Besides not wasting paper on printing (I didn't print my copy), I have the latest version.

But even if you don't look at the manual, some of the less obvious features are displayed on the iPod where you need it. For example, a note in the Contact section provides instructions on how to load contacts if you don't synchronize with outlook. Or when I accidentally created an on-the-go play list, an additional on-the-go play list appeared and included a note explaining the feature.

What does this mean for documenting larger products?

The iPod is a simple consumer device. Although it's a great device, it supports only limited functionality (not that I necessarily want it to do more). Does the iPod's documentation offer any suggestions to how to improve the documentation experience for products that offer greater functionality, such as BMC Remedy Service Desk?

To me, it seems like there are a few lessons that can be learned:

• In the box, include printed materials only to cover the bare minimum of what people need to know to get started. This highlights what is needed to get started, and doesn't overwhelm people with information that they need only later.
• Make the bulk of the manuals available on-line (although electronic copy included with the product distribution media might also work).
  
• Provide help where they need it. Does this mean context-sensitive help? Field-level help? Help panels embedded in the product at key points? I'm not sure.

What about you?

How do you like to receive your product information? Do you have any examples of what works for you? and what doesn't? Leave a comment - I'd love to read your thoughts.

When I'm writing a guide, white paper, or even a blog entry, does anyone care what technology I'm using? To a certain point, it's the content that matters, and not how it got there. But technology can affect how that information is presented. It's not just whether you're reading my content in a PDF, HTML pages, or a help system. For example, the right graphic tools can make it easier to create certain types of illustrations (such as flow diagrams) or to annotate my illustrations.

It can also make a difference to all the people who work with me in producing documentation. Although I might be the person doing the writing, there are many people who play a role: product managers requesting new documents, subject matter experts (developers and others) providing information and reviewing documents, editors, and translators.

At times I've had discussions with subject matter experts on whether I use Microsoft Word or Adobe FrameMaker to create documents. Experts who like to write want to be able to enter their changes directly to the document - and they all have Microsoft Word. FrameMaker, however, is often the tool of choice for technical writers.

Do writers still have these discussions when they create HTML or XML documents? After all, developers often have tools fo editing HTML and XML documents. And tools shouldn't matter as much if we don't use proprietary file formats.

And what about moving to a content management system? That can change workflows for everyone who touches the document.

If you're not an information developer or technical writer, do you care what tool I'm using?

- By Michele Marques, Lead Information Developer, ITSM

An introduction to Michele Marques and her Write On blog with talk.bmc.com.

Although I've been writing personal blogs for some time, I feel a little nervous with my first corporate blog here at talk.bmc. I probably don't know you, and you don't know me. I'm no longer used to speaking publicly. Although many years ago at the Schulich School of Business, I gave a presentation to 600 incoming MBA students.

As a technical writer, I've become accustomed to anonymity. Plenty of people read what I write (manuals, white papers, technical bulletins, and so on), but only a few people know those are my words.

In case you haven't already read my bio, let me introduce myself. I started with BMC a couple of years ago as a technical writer. I write about products in the BMC Remedy IT Service Management (BMC Remedy ITSM) suite and solutions using those applications.

Recently, I had the opportunity to meet some customers. I came away from that meeting surprised and energized. Surprised - because some of their challenges were different from my preconceptions. Energized - because I had ideas I wanted to bring to our documentation that might enhance the customer experience. Hopefully, your experience.

I'm glad to have this opportunity to blog at BMC, because this will give me a forum where I can talk about ideas and get feedback from: customers, people in environments similar to our customers, and to others who are facing similar challenges.

Are you a customer? Are you providing IT service? I'd love to hear from you, to learn more about your challenges and what information you're seeking.