Management

Quality management

Underlyning idea

Quality in technical communication products has many indicators and components. Delivering quality products benefits technical writers, the organisations they work for, and the audience of the products.

Application

Technical writers must understand quality management as well as quality assurance principles and strategies in order to implement appropriate quality processes and to manage projects for quality. It is strategically and professionally important for technical writers to implement quality processes and to ensure that they deliver products of high quality.

Scope

This topic covers: definitions of quality, quality management, standards and processes for quality, criteria of content quality, quality tests that can be implemented, quality control for different media, and procedures for quality maintenance.

Quality management methods

Define quality in information products
Know about quality management methods (e.g. total quality management, Kaizen, TQM, business process reengineering (BPR), ISO 9000)
Understand the components of quality management systems
Understand methods and technologies in management and quality assurance
Demonstrate and analyse changes in quality management and evaluate the impact on the cost in various situations
Follow and make changes to the documentation of quality management systems
Understand quality assurance and quality management for information products, quality criteria, benefits (e.g., for translation, cost savings) and possible effects of inadequate quality assurance
Identify types of information subject to more stringent quality assurance measures (e.g., safety notes and warning messages, hazardous substances)
Understand quality problems in technical communication and their causes (e.g., translation before completion of source text) and solutions
Improve quality by standardisation (e.g., process standardisation, editorial guides) and making quality assurance easier
Know the components of the quality management system
Know the methods and technologies in management and quality assurance
Follow and make changes to the documentation of quality management systems
Demonstrate and analyse changes in quality management and evaluate the impact on the cost in various situations

Regulation and standards for quality

Know the international standard for quality management (ISO 9001:2015)
Understand standards for quality management
Understand basic principles of quality assurance

Quality assurance

Understand continuous improvement processes (e.g., lessons learned)
Understand the levels of the editing process
Understand reviews (e.g., dual verification, checklists, subject matter experts) and tools for technical content-related approval
Understand the purpose of corporate style guides
Use style guides
Employ quality assurance appraoches to address problems and enhance the quality of projects and products
Understand practices for documenting processes in ways that address or contribute to quality control
Schedule quality assurance into a project
Understand quality assurance for text, illustrations and structure
Check criteria for copy editing and review jobs
Understand the scope and limitations of copy editing (e.g., elimination of ambiguities)
Check structure
Check content and text (e.g., correct spelling, grammar, style, terminology)
Check presentation of contents (e.g., tables, graphics, images) and relationships between different contents
Check content-related items (e.g., text, graphics, data, tables) for content-related approval
Check that content is factually correct
Check other editing tasks and project-specific requirements (e.g., target group)
Review and approve content
Forward information products for content-related approval (e.g., as a commentable PDF)
Check supplier's documentation
Check service provider's documentation
Check certificates and declarations (e.g., presence and correct assignment) and approval