Quality management
Management
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.
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.
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.
- 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
- Know the international standard for quality management (ISO 9001:2015)
- Understand standards for quality management
- Understand basic principles of 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
- Compare product and product information
- Check the information product (e.g., functional tests, field test, usability)
- Understand forms of information, product certification, and approval by testing institutes
- Edit and proofread content
- Check print quality
- Check security requirements in the case of print media (e.g. audit reliability, protection against manipulation and copy protection)
- Check that the publication process is error-free
- Check access by target groups and access rights for electronic media
- Check security requirements for electronic media (e.g., audit reliability, protection against manipulation and copy protection, protection against unauthorized distribution)
- Check if the publication process is error-free for electronic media
- Test that the information product can be installed and run in its target environment for information products in output devices
- Test functionality for information products in output devices (e.g., forms, help pages)
- Check the presentation of content for information products in output devices (e.g., completeness, presentation, links)
- Check the entire information product (e.g., line breaks, file size, completeness of product when displayed)
- Organise continuous monitoring
- Identify security vulnerabilities
- Identify copyright infringements
- Check licenses