Originally published in the January 2000 issue of Intercom, the magazine of the Society for Technical Communication. Reprinted with permission.

by Saul Carliner

A good economy. A revolution in biotechnology. Perhaps they make interesting reading in the business pages, but they also affect technical communicators and our organizations.

As we start another new year (and, in this case, new decade, century, and millenium), let's pause a moment to reflect on the trends affecting business in general, and how they affect technical communication organizations in general and, more specifically, jobs.

Business Trends

World economy on the rebound. The majority of STC members who live in the United States have enjoyed sustained economic growth for the past eight years. As a result, we often lack first-hand experience with the sluggish economies in many of the other countries in which STC has members. Many members in the Far East were affected by the 1997 meltdown in the Asian economies, the prolonged recession in Japan, or the changeover from a command to market economies in Central and Eastern Europe.

For many (though not all) of these countries, the worst part of the crises have passed, and the economies are recovering. In the most immediate and practical terms, this means that demands for goods and services have increased and, as a result, organizations in these countries are hiring workers.

Growth of technical communication outside the U.S. One source of growth in most of the economies outside the United States is the "knowledge industry," such as software development. That, in turn, has fueled demand for professional services, which includes technical communication and training. The market for people who can write product information, training materials, and marketing materials is growing; many markets are experiencing a shortage of skilled workers.

This has led to a growth of programs to train technical communicators outside of North America, including Finland, France, Germany, India, Israel, and the United Kingdom. Many of these programs are based in colleges and universities. Some are housed in translation departments (because technical communication products developed in other countries are often developed in one language and translated to another); others are based in English departments (where they exist). Some focus solely on technical writing; others develop a broader range of information design and development skills.

Online learning business boom. Although most of us are trained in technical writing, an increasingly number of us design and develop training materials. That's in response to the tremendous growth in online learning. For years, online learning, that is computer-based training, wizards and other online support, and online references, comprised a small, steady part of training efforts.

But as employees need increasing quantities of technical training stay abreast of job changes (one source estimates that at least 40 percent of all US workers needs technical training each year) and employers look for ways to more efficiently train workers, they increasingly turn to online learning. In 1998, an industry expert predicted that the demand for online learning programs would grow four-fold by 2002. This year, that expert revised her figures and predicted a 20-fold increase by 2002.

To be honest, some of what's defined as "online learning" could easily be defined as technical communication. For example, online wizards and demonstrations can be classified as easily as technical communication as they are online learning.

But the lack of clarity in who "owns" these communication products doesn't affect our opportunities for developing them. Lacking a sufficient number of trainers to meet that demand, many organizations are turning to their technical communicators.

Keeping Seven-Eleven hours. One tangible effect of the globalization of economies and the pervasiveness of the Internet is that business increasingly operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, just like a convenience store such as Seven-Eleven and Circle K (two chains that operate in several countries).

The never-ending business day sometimes results from "tag-team" approaches to work, where people in one time zone start a job, then pass it to people in other time zones as their shift ends. In some instances, people in one time zone contact people in the others when questions arise, leaving people in the other time zones "on call" during off-hours. The never-ending business day also results from our ability to exchange material instantly. With excuses like "it's in the mail" no longer available to us, we find new pressures on meeting deadlines. Finally, the never-ending business day results from our belief that we can handle more work because publishing and other tools make us more efficient. That's not always the case and we extend our work day to compensate.

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Technology Trends

The metamorphosis of Help design. Since its initial inception, online help was "static" and primarily provided instructions for completing tasks online and explanations of information that appeared on the screen. The movement from WinHelp to HTML has affected more than the nature of the source code. It has influenced the design of Help.

Increasingly, organizations are designing dynamic Help systems that meet the needs of users at various levels. In addition to the instructions and reference material traditionally available in Help, Help developers design wizards to complete tasks for users and guided demonstrations and tutorials for new and transfer users. Through stay-on-top help, cue cards, tips, and contextual help, Help developers provide users with more targeted assistance.

In addition, some organizations are using their websites to share technical information with users, rather than manuals or CDs. Most of this information is intended for more experienced and more technical users. By using websites to communicate this information, organizations can provide information to users on a more timely basis.

What's noteworthy is not the devices themselves. For example, the concept of contextual help emerged over a decade ago. What's noteworthy is the increasing use of these devices.

Re-defining the design and development process. Organizations traditionally look for ways to improve processes and, ultimately reduce costs. In the 1980s, technical communication organizations used desktop publishing to reduce costs and improve quality. In the 1990s, we moved information online.

Now, our organizations increasingly realize that, through more tightly coordinated design and development processes, they can realize significant savings by developing source material once, and restructuring it for presentation in different situations. In some cases, the differences are in context: training or documentation? In others, the differences are in delivery method: print or online?

These needs drive organizations to single source--that is, develop material once for delivery in a variety of media and contexts--and document management--keeping an accurate inventory of communication products ( and components of those products) to avoid developing them twice (among other benefits).

In some instances, the technical communication group is taking responsibility for tracking all information developed by an organization--not just the product and procedural information typically within our purview--to help organizations better realize the anticipated benefits of single sourcing and document management.

XML products finally hit the market. Last year, I reported the emergence of XML, a new markup language to facilitate single sourcing. It lets users code material once for use in a variety of situations, and represents a merger of sorts of SGML and HTML. What's happening now is that XML products are starting to be developed for the market. Although not widely in use now, they could become more prevalent as the market for single source documentation grows.

e-commerce shines the light on us: Most of you are probably aware of e-commerce--that is, making products and services available for purchase online (or at least, browsing of those products and services). What's significant is that organizations recognize the expertise we developed years ago in online communication as pivotal to success in this area.

Internet 2 hits the streets: As mentioned last year, a faster, hipper version of the Internet is in the works. For years, use of this new version (called Internet 2) has been limited to those institutions who are piloting it. But some of the products that they are developing are starting to come to market and could improve the performance of the Internet 1.

Lest we forget other technologies. Although we typically think of software development, telecommunications, and publishing software when we think of technology, developments in other technical areas also need to be communicated and, as a result, offer a growing base of employment for technical communicators.

For example, a new methodology for identifying genes has wreaked chaos on the biotechnology industry. A private firm is using this methodology (and related changes in technology) to complete the human genome project on its own--start to finish--in 2 years. A U.S.-government led consortium of 18 countries has been working on this project since 1990 and had originally planned to complete the project in 2005. In response to the competition, they are revising their plans.

This activity of pure research has spurred significant developments in the pharmaceutical, environmental, and agricultural industries--many resulting in an increased need for information. Organizations need some of this information to meet regulatory needs; others to explain new technologies to users.

Similarly, significant developments in medical research have resulted in new medical devices that monitor patients and provide artificial replacements for faulty human parts. This, in turn, has spurred demand for usability testing (to make sure that ordinary people can use the new devices), training (to teach doctors how to install the devices and patients how to use them), and documentation (in addition to product documentation, manufacturers have numerous reports to file with regulators).

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Writing and Design Trends

Knowledge management. In addition to the need to avoid duplicate development efforts, one of the drivers behind single sourcing and document management is a focus by organizations on managing the knowledge within them like they manage other resources in an organization. The more useful information that is captured by an organization and the more accessible it is to staffs, the better an organization can use its previous experience to its advantage.

Knowledge management specifically refers to efforts to capture, store, transform, and disseminate information in a useful context within an organization. Although the effort to manage knowledge seems like a natural fit for technical communicators, we have been among the last to participate. Typically, information systems and marketing groups (and, in some cases, training groups) have led knowledge management efforts within their organizations.

A renewed interest in process. Back in the 1970s, significant research into the ways that people actually compose led to improvements in the writing process. Through this research, we learned about such methods as free-writing and writing out of sequence. But most of the research focused on writing small documents and on people whose primary job task was not communication.

Many technical communication products have hundreds of pages or topics, and require coordination of a client's and users' needs (needs of the person requesting a communication product often differ from those using it). A process focused on writing short documents does not address the significant design and business issues underlying a development effort.

Yet, until recently, that composition process has served as our primary model. Because successful single sourcing requires more extensive up-front design, it has unleashed an interest in the design phases of the technical communication processes.

A renewed focus on content. Now that everyone has a website--and can easily publish books and other materials-- the act of publishing no longer lacks significance. What does have significance is the content.

What is surprising is the seemingly universal understanding of what makes "quality content." It is not in the writing-because users have come to expect that it should be good. It is not in the design--because users have come to expect that should be good, too.

Rather, quality content pertains to the usefulness of the information to the target audience. The more effectively that readers can use information in communication products, and the more such information that is available, the better it is.

Providing quality content involves segmenting the audience and tailoring information to different segments (see the discussion of mass customization in last year's trends report).

Providing quality content also requires that the content be "smart;" that is, it should anticipate the readers' needs and provide them with information in a usable format. For example, most shipping organizations let users track a shipment.

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Professional Trends

Technical communication groups merge with training. As mentioned earlier, training is increasingly moving online, documentation increasingly instructs users, and organizations increasingly look for ways to avoid developing the same information twice. To share skills and to spur development of a single source of information, many organizations are merging their training and documentation departments. In some cases, the merged departments operate 2 separate groups under a single manager. In others, the merged departments seek to merge processes and assignments.

The job market further tightens. As mentioned earlier, the growth of technology and improvement in the world economy have fueled demand for technical communication. Although the supply of general business communicator meets or exceeds demands, the demand for technical communicators often outstrips supply. Last year, I reported the tight labor market in the United States; this situation is increasingly common in most markets.

This has led to an increased focus on recruiting qualified applicants and a change in incentives. Starting salaries are beginning to rise; hiring bonuses and similar incentives are also becoming common.

Fewer organizations focus on retaining good employees, and marginally satisfied employees often opt to change jobs than remain in one that is either intellectually unsatisfying or in which the employer takes the employee for granted.

Availability of training abounds. One positive aspect of the booming economy is the growth in the number of learning opportunities for technical communicators. Although many focus on tools and related skills, some focus on the development of core competencies, and many are geared to more specific niches within our business, such as managers and experienced technical communicators.

What about writing? Because so many of us technical communicators have academic training in writing and literature (some of us even harbor dreams of writing novels and screenplays), we often believe that writing is the primary skill needed to succeed in our job and feel that, when management emphasizes other skills, that our employers do not value good writing skills.

On the contrary, organizations desperately need good writing skills. However, our employers view writing as "hygiene." That is, they assume that we can write, just as they assumed we shower before we arrive at work. They only notice the absence of good writing skills, not the presence.

In years past, managers focused attention on skills for using tools because few people understood or knew how to use them. Now that most of us can use the tools, focus seems to be shifting to design and analysis skills--the ability to identify communication problems, and choose appropriate solutions to them. Writing and editing continue to be essential skills, but they are not the only skills needed by our employers. Technical communicators who fail to develop expertise in these other areas--design and analysis, tools, project management, and use of media--will find their career opportunities increasingly limited even though the demand for technical communication remains strong.

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Check out my predictions for the year 2002 and 1998.

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(c) Copyright. 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002. Saul Carliner. All rights reserved.