Résumé of Marina Michaels
Senior Technical Writer, Indexer, and Editor
Technical Publications Manager
My email address is marina@sonic.net. Additional contact information is in the PDF version of my résumé. If you don’t see it here, please ask. Chances are that I may well have done it, worked with it, or am competent enough to do it. If not, I’ll tell you.
If, after reading my résumé, you feel that I am a good fit for the task at hand, and/or would like further information about what I can do for you, please contact me! I look forward to hearing from you.
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I have over twenty-four years of experience as a senior technical writer, developmental editor, and professional indexer. This experience gives me a solid blend of technical skills and business savvy that makes me a great addition to any project. I have been project lead or project manager many times, and a publications manager twice. I am competent on a variety of operating systems and with a number of software applications, and at building and managing happy and successful publications groups. I am especially proficient at documenting all kinds of software, including developer’s guides and materials, and at getting along with all manner of folk. My writing, editing, and indexing skills are the best in the field. I work efficiently while maintaining a courteous and professional attitude.
| Contents | Summary | Experience | Tools | Education | Memberships and Interests |
Overview: Technical Publications Consultant (writing, editing, managing, indexing), 11/91 to 9/96 and 6/98 to present (plus a brief stint in the early 1980s). Greater San Francisco Bay Area, California, USA. Project management; technical writing, editing, and indexing for many major companies, often on long-term and renewed/return contracts. I manage all projects using a combination of standard project management practices and my own custom tracking and reporting documents. The following paragraphs provide quite detailed information about the major contracts I have held since 1998. For just a brief summary of all contracts held, see a brief contract history.
Senior Technical Writer, September 2002 to May 2008. KnowNow, Inc. Managed all documentation for KnowNow’s enterprise-level, real-time, publish-and-subscribe/RSS (Web) server and components. I wrote, edited, and indexed all manuals, taking screen shots and performing other usual writing tasks as needed; used the bug database to keep on top of problems and changes; installed and used the software, learning it in depth; wrote release notes; coordinated and ran documentation reviews; and gave input to the GUI design. Documentation types primarily comprised system administration manuals, developer’s guides, end-user guides, release notes, read-me files, and API documentation delivered in PDF; online, context-sensitive help; and XHTML formats. Product components were written in a number of different languages (primarily Java, JavaScript, Tcl, and C++). When I took on the responsibility for the release notes, I converted them from plain text to XHTML with CSS, then maintained them in that format from then on. I worked with a cross-country and global development team. (Compliments.)
Comments: I had the great honor of working with smart people who cared about the quality of the product and who knew that, for software especially, the documentation is a part of the product. (And who also appreciated the fact that, for the first time, they had a technical writer who actually installed and used the product.) Shortly after I began work there, I became and remained KnowNow’s sole technical writer. The product line grew and so did my responsibilities and the number of manuals. When I started, there were two products with three manuals of approximately 200 pages total. By April 2008, there were nine products and eleven manuals with over 1,800 pages total.
Some tools used: FrameMaker 7, Dreamweaver CS3, Acrobat, Photoshop CS3, SnagIt, Index Tools Professional, Microsoft Office (all products), WebWorks Professional 7, Perforce (source control), Test Director (bug database), Bugzilla (ditto).
Indexer and WebWorks Template Developer, First quarter, 2001, and October 2001 to March 2002. CoSine Communications. Indexed two manuals, one for command-line-interface (CLI) routing software and the other for routing software with a graphical user interface (GUI). Also, created a custom WebWorks template to work with the CoSine FrameMaker templates. (Compliments.) Some of the concepts I needed to understand in order to index these manuals: ATM, crypto maps, digital certificates, DS0, DS1, and so on (and European equivalents), filters, firewalls, frame relay, FRoIP, IKE, IPSec, ISAKMP, OC-3c, packets, proxies, SONET, tunnels, VCs and VCIs, VRs and VIs, VPNs, and much, much more. (Much of my knowledge was gained previously while working for a telecommunications company, Next Level Communications.) In addition, I needed to understand the software itself well enough to index its documentation, and to make suggestions and some light corrections to the manuals as I indexed them (with permission, of course). Created some unique spreadsheets and modified my ongoing set of spreadsheet tools.
Comments: These projects went fairly smoothly. The indexing had to be done a few chapters at a time as the writers were under deadlines and were continuing to work on the books as I was indexing them. This introduces some challenges in indexing which I resolved in various creative ways. The WebWorks template development went smoothly until the template was tested in "real life" situations. Then we encountered problems with compatibility of the selected template (the WebWorks Help 2 style) and a few of the in-house system configurations. We finally resolved this by having me create a dynamic HTML template. The plus side was that, using either of my templates, the company was able to convert books into online help that they had never been able to successfully convert using their previous WebWorks template. Also, everyone at CoSine is a pleasure to work with.
Some tools used: FrameMaker 6, IXGen, Index Tools Professional, Excel, WebWorks Professional 6.
Senior Technical Writer, 12/00 to 06/01. Electron Economy (later purchased by Viewlocity). Documented business solutions software for a supply chain event management (SCEM) eCommerce platform supporting many different formats (EDI (X.12, EDIFACT, TRADACOM, ODETTE), XML, RosettaNet, HTML, SAP IDOC, JDE Z-Transaction, and many others) that could be used by different companies to communicate among themselves. Created a document plan and associated spreadsheets for an overview document that was to describe every aspect of the platform (a constantly moving target). Wrote user’s manuals, system integration guides, administrator’s guides, and API guides.
Created document plans for additional manuals that I was to write, which were for software components in the platform. Wrote one of those manuals for the Process Intelligence Manager, a product that performed business and supply chain forecasting and business analysis tasks. It had a built-in set of business rules that could be used, as well as customizable rules, such as “If supplier A is selected, add three more weeks to the lead time.” The custom rules could be made as simple or complex as desired. The rule building blocks included support for if statements and case/switch statements, variables, constants, and configurable drop-down parameter lists. My understanding of financial formulas and terminology, and my training in statistics, were very useful in writing this manual, which was still undergoing major design changes when my contract ended. When I produced my first draft of the manual for review, one of the chief software developers on the product exclaimed that he was surprised and amazed at how I had written so much, so accurately, based on a single interview with him. This case is an example of how well I am able to document a product by performing independent research and by extensively using the software itself. Out of my experiences with the software, as well as previous courses and informal training on usability testing and product design, I made several suggestions for improving the GUI, all of which were implemented.
In addition to completing my own tasks, I developmentally edited several manuals written by other writers and, drawing on my educational training and background, on my own initiative, designed, prepared, and presented a mini-seminar on indexing to several other writers on the team. The participants all said they enjoyed it, they learned a lot, and they would be much better at indexing their manuals after the seminar. Other tasks included helping with the WebWorks template and modifying the FrameMaker template so that it worked better and so that it matched marketing’s visual design. This included creating a single master template to simplify the task of updating all manuals.
Comments: This project included many aspects of the usual software product development process: Rapidly changing products, short deadlines, software development continuing past document deadlines, shifting priorities, changing staff, and so on, all of which I took in stride. Working with the EE staff was a pleasure. The engineers were informative and responsive, and my fellow writers and the manager of the publications group were competent, intelligent, and enjoyable people.
Some tools used: FrameMaker+SGML 6, Acrobat, PhotoShop, Outlook 2000, Microsoft Project, Windows 2000, Hummingbird Exceed (to access the server to run the product), SourceSafe, Excel, SnagIt, IXGen, Index Tools Professional, WebWorks Professional 6.
Senior Technical Writer, 4/99 to 1/01. Annuncio Software. Documented Internet eCommerce software. Starting with 40 HTML pages in late April 1999, I wrote a set of manuals (user’s guide, administration guide, integration guide, and template guide) in FrameMaker, totaling over 900 pages by product ship in late 2000. During the entire time I was working on this project, I was project lead, even after in-house writers were added to the project late in the cycle. As project lead, I attended several weekly status and planning meetings; coordinated and ran documentation reviews; gave input to the GUI design (much of which was used); managed the documentation (document plans, scheduling, organization, and implementation); used the bug database to keep on top of problems and changes; used the software and learned it in depth; wrote, edited, and indexed all manuals, taking screen shots and performing other usual writing tasks as needed; and wrote release notes. Also worked on several short-term documentation projects. I continued to be project lead until the end of the project in early 2001.
From April 1999, when the company was BrightInfo, to July 2000, after BrightInfo’s acquisition by Annuncio in March 2000, I was the sole writer on the project . In July 2000, the product was spun off into two additional products, requiring nearly triple the amount of documentation. At that time, I recommended the addition of another two writers to the project; that recommendation was followed with the addition of one in-house writer and one contractor. I continued to work on all three projects as project lead.
I designed and created the FrameMaker template for the books, creating a single master template that could be used for all the different types of files in a FrameMaker book, including the TOC and index. This template made it possible to update the styles and formats in a book in much less time than if there were different templates for each part of a book. I also created and used a custom WebWorks template to convert the documentation into Java/HTML help format.
Created some unique spreadsheets and modified my ongoing set of spreadsheet tools. Also created HTML pages to access several different sets of JavaDoc-created API documentation.
Comments: This project was fast-paced and fun. It included many of the usual challenges of a product being developed from the early stages to a mature, full-featured product. The product underwent several major design changes, which required my staying on top of the product and staying in good communication with other members of the team. I was often complimented (a common comment: “You’re the best technical writer I have ever known”). I was also told that I had a better overall understanding of the product, since I had documented every aspect of it, than anyone else on the team. I greatly enjoyed working with the development, QA, and product management staff. Everyone was competent, professional, quality-oriented, and a pleasure to work with.
Some tools used: FrameMaker 5.5 and 6, Acrobat, Outlook (including for scheduling meetings), Web browsers (for accessing and documenting the GUI portion of the product), HomeSite, Windows 98, SourceSafe, Excel, SnagIt, IXGen, WebWorks 2000 and later, WebWorks Professional 6.
Publications Manager, 6/98 to 3/99. Progress Software. Built and managed a cross-country group of writers (three permanent, two contract) documenting a Java-based integrated development environment and application server for creating client- and server-side Java and HTML applications. On my own initiative, I reviewed the release note process, which was quite time consuming and error prone. I came up with a revised process that made the release note process take a fraction of the time it had been previously taking and also made the release notes much more accurate. This revised process required some small but useful changes to the bug database and to the bug reporting process, which, after my presentation, were accepted as necessary changes and were implemented. These changes made it easier to create queries and pull bug reports. I also hired several more writers, including a writer to work on the Java API documentation, as I oversaw the creation of the JavaDoc-generated documentation.
In addition to building a team and seeing a product through a major release, my tasks included mentoring a permanent employee so he could step into my shoes when my contract ended.
Along with the usual management tasks of attending planning meetings, writing document plans, managing the writing staff, coordinating efforts, interviewing candidates, putting out some fires in various areas, and numerous other tasks, my responsibilities also included:
Comments: The documentation side of this project went smoothly, especially after I implemented a writer’s style guide. This was my first full managerial position on a contract basis (all previous managerial experience was performed as a regular employee). One challenge was that I stepped into a situation where there had been no publications manager before, and previous contract writers had used that fact to their own advantage, taking over the project and not cooperating with permanent staff. This made the political situation delicate and combustible. Those same writers initially made it known that they did not like the fact that another contractor (and a woman at that) was being placed over them. In the face of these obstacles, I was able to not only greatly improve the department’s relationships with other departments, but was also able to manage the recalcitrant and rebellious writers in such a way that they ended up thanking me for my fine leadership. One of them even said that I was the best manager he had ever worked for.
Some tools used: FrameMaker 5.5, Acrobat, RoboHelp, Outlook (including for scheduling meetings), Microsoft Project, HomeSite, Windows 98, UNIX, SourceSafe, Visio, Excel, SnagIt, IXGen, WebWorks.
Previous projects have included:
I also
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Senior Information Developer (senior technical writer), 9/96 to 5/98. Information Development Technology Group, Next Level Communications, Rohnert Park, CA, USA. (Contracted there from 2/96 to 9/96.) Solely responsible for documenting third-generation fiber-to-the-curb telephony system provisioning software (View-1 and View-2). Also responsible for product release notes and training materials. Worked primarily alone under high-pressure situations (sometimes a release a week) to produce software documentation, usually with no specifications. As the sole writer on the View-1 and View-2 projects, I attended several team meetings a week, including bug triage meetings and product development meetings, and provided input regarding the GUI design. I took screen shots, logged in from my PC to the UNIX network to run the software, wrote entire manuals, managed reviews and documentation updates, and so on. To get information on the product, I interviewed engineers and used the product extensively. I wrote the entire 504-page View-1 user’s guide manual entirely from scratch with no specifications, just engineering interviews, product knowledge, and, later, excellent input from excellent reviewers. In addition, I wrote a number of other types of manuals to supplement the user’s guides. I received many compliments from our customers as “the best technical writer” that NLC had, including a letter of praise specifically about my work and my professionalism written by a high-level employee at US West and sent to the presidents of NLC. Tools: FrameMaker, Acrobat, Corel Capture and CorelDraw, WebWorks, Visio, ClearCase, Exceed (to access the product on the UNIX servers), Outlook, Excel, Microsoft Project, Windows, UNIX.
Product Manager 2, 8/91 to 11/91. Productivity Group, Brøderbund Software, Novato, California, USA. Responsible for managing and coordinating all aspects of a Macintosh System 7 product: marketing materials, packaging, documentation, and programming (design, coding, and testing). Had major input on the design of the product’s user interface and functionality. Tools: Macintosh applications.
Project Manager, C and C++ compiler documentation, 7/88 to 8/91. Borland International, Scotts Valley, California, USA. Starting out as Senior Technical Writer, I was initially the project lead on the Turbo Basic project, which was later cancelled and sold and published as PowerBASIC. The new owners used my documentation. I was also assigned the Turbo C project shortly after I started at Borland, and remained in charge of that project my entire time there.
While at Borland, I performed the following tasks:
As project lead and sole in-house writer on the Turbo C project, I stepped into a very difficult existing situation. When I arrived, there was a great deal of animosity between the publications department and the C development team, much of it due to a lack of understanding on both sides of the needs and methods of the other side. Since I had taken a number of programming courses and had worked in software and hardware development environments in previous companies as a part of the engineering team, I immediately saw the problem and decided to turn the situation around. I felt that the chief problem was simply a need for better understanding between the two departments, and I deliberately set out with a plan to fix the problem by filling that need in both departments. While doing so, I maintained a courteous, professional, non-adversarial attitude toward all. Within six months, contrary to their previous behavior, the C team members were inviting me to key meetings, sharing information with me, and in general working more readily with me. Likewise, the publications team was developing a better understanding of the software development process, and as a result, things were much more harmonious and productive everywhere. And to my credit, I did it with such subtlety and diplomacy that few people in either group understood that I was instrumental in this change. (A few canny people caught on and commented on it to me.) As new people were hired, I made sure to talk with them immediately to help set positive expectations, instead of negative ones. By the time I left, the new culture of mutual admiration and cooperation was so ingrained that few remembered how it had been before, and productivity was very high.
While I managed the Turbo C documentation project, the product turned into Borland C++. I took the manuals from 600 pages total to several multi-volume documentation sets for varying versions of the product. The documentation for the core product, Borland C++, was over 1,700 pages. Borland C++ won awards, and the media started to discuss, sometimes at length, the very high quality and usefulness of the documentation I had produced.
After two years, after several intermediate promotions, I was promoted to Project Manager, and was given a budget to hire eight writers to work under me. I hired a good team, and managed to keep some very diverse writers focused and happy.
As part of my job as Project Manager, I needed to keep two writers who hated each other working smoothly and without conflict, even when working with each other. As an indication of my skill and success, these two never fought the entire time I was managing them. After I left, they became a huge problem for each other and the department, quickly becoming legendary for the ferocity and animosity of their fights.
Some tools used: Sprint (Borland’s powerful non-WYSIWYG word processing and desktop publishing tool), Paradox (a relational database), Quattro Pro (a spreadsheet program), Borland’s proprietary (and unnamed) in-house online help system, Microsoft Project, screen capture utilities, DOS, Windows, Novell Network (I wrote my own login scripts).
Senior Technical Writer/Editor, 2/87 to 6/88. Intelligent Instrumentation Incorporated (now owned by Texas Instruments), Tucson, AZ, USA. Part of the engineering team. Responsible for all phases of documentation development for a PC-based scientific instrumentation company: writing from specs, editing, designing book layout, and preparing masters for final print. I was responsible for over 100 manuals ranging in size from 15 pages to 400. I introduced desktop publishing and saved the company tens of thousands of dollars in costs in the first few months. Products were primarily hardware with some supporting software drivers; I also wrote and designed the layout of a number of pieces of marketing collateral and a large product brochure. Introduced indexing to the company’s manuals. After I had been there for six months, the tech support engineers told me that support calls asking where information was in the manuals were greatly reduced thanks to my indexing. This freed them to spend more time on the more technical calls. Tools: WordStar, Ventura, DOS.
Technical Writer/Senior Technical Writer, Textron, 9/84 to 1/87.
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I tend to become an expert at whatever software tool I am using. The following list is a sampling; I’ve learned many more than what is listed here, including the applications I’ve documented.
Platforms and hardware: IBM PCs; various Microsoft operating systems (DOS, Windows 3.1, 95, 98, 2000, NT, and XP); Postscript and LaserJet printers; Macintosh; Novell and Microsoft networks; scanners; mainframes (VAX, DEC); UNIX (including PINE, Elm, and vi).
Programming languages learned: BASIC, C, FORTRAN 77, Java, Pascal, XHTML. I’ve learned CSS, which isn’t a programming language but can be tricky. I am familiar with object-oriented and GUI programming concepts. I’ve also studied Classical Latin, Old English, Modern High German, Japanese (which I am still studying), and Spanish.
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In addition to having earned the following degrees, I continue to take professional courses in the fields of technical writing and computer software and programming.
Master of Arts, Anthropology, 1983. University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA. Graduate Scholarship.
Master of Library Science, 1978; completed a two-year degree in one year while also working 30 hours a week. San José State University, San José, CA, USA. California State Fellowship. Librarians are expected and trained to be in positions of responsibility, from running a library department (as department manager) to running the entire library (as chief executive). Budgeting, staffing, planning, and running the day-to-day operations of a business are all covered in the coursework. Because of this, a degree in library science is essentially a specialized MBA. While earning this degree, I served a six-month library internship at the Veteran’s Administration Hospital Libraries (medical and patient), which included overseeing the work of library volunteers and performing patient outreach.
Bachelor of Science, Anthropology/Sociology, 1977. (Close to a second bachelor’s degree in English.) Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA, USA. Honor student, Regent’s scholarship, first year. California State Scholarship all four years. Dean’s list (straight “A”s) numerous times.
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I have been or currently am a member of the following professional organizations:
Publishing companies and authors seeking indexers are often interested in an indexer’s interests in order to see how good a match the indexer might be for the indexing task at hand. If you are a potential indexing client, here is a more comprehensive list of memberships and interests.
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Last updated June 9, 2008
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Copyright © 2008 by Marina Michaels. All rights reserved.