Visible - The New Valuable

摘要

Documentation departments have value; however because of the disconnection with the rest of the company, that value rarely get accurately communicated. Therefore, it is the department's responsibility to show their value by becoming more visible. This paper describes how one technical writing department overcame negative perceptions by making themselves visible in five different ways. A valuable, visible documentation team, must: evaluate internal/external perceptions of the documentation and department; xdevelop a mission statement that answers the question: "Why does our department exist?"; develop a vision statement that answers the question "What can we do to improve our mission in the future?"; and demonstrate value by: expressing values in an attention grabbing way (visual representation), publicizing values through verbal and written messages, and communicating values through behaviors and actions.