Manager Technical Writer

Summary of Qualifications

Technical writing professional specializing in software documentation project management with proven track record of high contribution to results in complex and challenging environments.

Proven Record of Excellent Employee Evaluations

Strong Ability to Learn New Technologies Quickly

Outstanding Instruction & Public Presentation Skills

News writing, PR, Marketing & Desktop Publishing Experience

Instructional Design, Instructor-Led Training Delivery & Tutorial Video Production Experience

Extensive Project Management Experience in Software Documentation & Training

Enterprise Business Policy, Process & Procedure Authoring Experience

Business Proposal & RFP Writing & Editing Experience

Business Analysis, Functional & Technical Specifications Experience

Software Testing & Help Desk Team Leadership Experience

Technical Writing, Editing, & Publishing Expertise

Structured Authoring (XML, HTML, CSS), Information Architecture & Content Management Experience

Single-Source, Multi-Output Online Help Development & Publishing Expertise

Software Documentation & Web Authoring Standards Expertise

Wiki Design & Administration Experience (Confluence & SharePoint)

Education and Professional

Bachelor of Arts (in English) Albion College Albion, MI

Journalism Concentration; State of Michigan Competitive Scholarship Winner; Staff Writer for The Pleiad, Albion College Weekly Newspaper; Independent Cooperative Fraternity President; Tennis Team, Sailing Team.

Jul. '16 Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC) -International Association of Accessibility Pros.

Jun. '14 ITIL Foundations - Alexos IT Service Management Certification

Mar.’11 Project Management Certification – Writers UA Software User Assistance

Oct. ’09 Technical Communication Project Management – PMI-sponsored Lavacon Conference

May ’08 Usability & Accessibility certification - STC User Research, Design & Evaluation

May ’07 Team Management certification - Society for Technical Communication

Apr. ’06 Camtasia certification - MSU Libraries, Computing & Technology Training Program

Jul. ’05 Visio Professional certification – MSU Libraries, Computing & Technology Training Program

Career: Documentation Standards - Well-versed in documentation-related ISO & IEEE standards, the Manual of Style for Technical Publications (Microsoft), Information Development (Hackos), AP Stylebook, The Chicago Manual of Style, etc.

Current Employment

Jul.'15 - Present Documentation Manager Deque Systems, Inc. Ann Arbor, MI

Promoted from Senior Technical Writer in Jan. 2018 at this small company (approx. 100 employees). Development of eLearning courses, user documentation, technical reference documentation, API documentation, installation guides, administration guides, online help, printable quick start guides, etc. for automated and manual accessibility testing software product suite. Additional work has included authoring blog posts, assisting with proposals, design critiques, quality assurance testing, tutorial video production, custom remediation advice pages in Deque University accessibility curriculum. Recent XML tool evaluation included MadCap Flare and DITA Open Toolkit. Content authored also appears in the open-source product Axe-core, which itself is a part of other open source products, such as Google's Lighthouse. Primary tools used include GitHub, Bitbucket, MODX CMS, Google Sites & Adobe Acrobat DC.

Past Employment

Dec.'03-Jul.'15 Information Technologist II (Multiple Roles) Michigan State University East Lansing, MI

Twelve years of work while retaining the generic Info Tech union position title with promotions from Info Tech Professional, Info Tech I, then II, during which work included internal project and team roles with various other “unofficial yet formal” job titles and assignments listed below – all of which have involved technical information development for software projects:

End User Education Team Lead (May 2015-July 2015), Kuali Coeus Research Administration Project, Vice President of Research and Graduate Studies– Responsible for information architecture, online help design, user documentation and e-learning development for implementation of MSU's customized version of the open source Kuali Coeus research administration system. Work deliverables include end user education strategy, documentation requirements, standards, templates, and prototypes; project plan with work breakdown structure; authoring, editing, recording, and publishing to integrated online help system and learning management system.

Communications Manager & Knowledge Manager, Communications and Marketing Team, Office of the CIO, IT Services (November 2014 -April 2015 ) – Serving as both a Communications Manager and Knowledge Manager, work includes using a content management system to design, develop and maintain service and unit information on various web sites, including itservices.msu.edu and tech.msu.edu; authoring and editing of online IT-related news for the unit; design, development, authoring, editing and publishing of Top 3 in IT, an internal departmental newsletter; and ongoing user documentation development project management for enterprise and client software systems and applications - including knowledgebase articles, user manuals, and in-application help; and serving as a technical writing student intern mentor. Primary tools – Confluence, SharePoint, Google Apps, Google Sites (for eNewsletter), Cascade Server CMS, SharePoint, Confluence, Madcap Doc-To-Help, Techsmith Camtasia, SnagIt, Adobe Dreamweaver.

Portfolio Manager, Portfolio Management Team, University Systems (January 2013 - November 2014) – Serving as both a Communications Manager and Technical Communicator, work included writing and editing both internal and external communications on behalf of the department Director within the IT Services unit; design, development, writing, photography and publishing of internal, online Newsletter; and ongoing user documentation development project management for university software systems. Portfolio management duties related to setup and ongoing maintenance of website content for tech.msu.edu, the IT Services website, internal departmental policy & procedure writing, Confluence wiki spaces for both University Systems and Portfolio Management team, annual reports, and service catalog. Member of the University Communicator Network. Primary tools – Google Apps, Google Sites (for eNewsletter), Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, Confluence Wiki, Survey Monkey.

Project Manager, Project Management Office (PMO), University Systems (March 2012 – January 2013) – Led projects that required the coordination of team managers and input by all department leaders, including the establishment of the business analyst team description and requirements templates, disaster recovery research and documentation, PMO project portfolio, online service catalog web site, skills inventory survey, system support information wiki pages, time tracking system research and planning, and team website content. Planned, designed, wrote, and developed a departmental space and page content in the Confluence wiki. Established an impressive, well-received online internal department newsletter, handling all aspects of the design, planning, implementation, authoring and publishing myself. Primary tools – Doc-To-Help (Component One), Word, SnagIt, Eclipse, Acrobat, Confluence, JIRA, Sakai, Contour, Google Apps for Education.

Documentation Manager, Kuali Coeus Project (May 2010 – February 2012) – Kuali Coeus Research Administration project, Kuali Foundation – user and technical system documentation development for the Kuali Coeus software project for higher education - a nationwide, community source project involving multiple institutions. In-App Help/Printed Documentation Authoring, Editing & Publishing, QA Testing, User Interface Design, Functional Council. Published Kuali Coeus 4.0 user documentation and online help for the Kuali Foundation, which included over 1,500 pages of material I personally authored myself. Also published a website, a series of wiki spaces/pages, and subversion repository that served as a project documentation library. Primary tools – Doc-To-Help (NetHelp), Word, SnagIt, Eclipse, Acrobat, Confluence, JIRA, Sakai, Contour, Google Docs/Sites.

Instructional Design Team Lead, Enterprise Business Systems Project (August 2009 – May 2010) – Planning and leadership work with team of instructional designers, training developers and trainers for web-based and instructor-led training courses on Kuali Financial System (KFS) in preparation for enterprise software system implementation at Michigan State University. The work involved establishment of training deliverable templates, a style guide, video and documentation standards, webinar development, web site design, business process procedure development, a policy tracking tool, training logistics planning, and training project planning. Primary tools – RWD uPerform, PowerPoint, SharePoint, Angel.

Member Liaison, Kuali Foundation (November 2008 – June 2009) – After I left this position, they renamed it Director of Communication and Collaboration. In this role, I handled community communications, outreach, coordination, public relations, licensing management, collaboration group and email list management, social network establishment and maintenance, kuali.org web content authoring, announcements, system administration, security access facilitation, marketing materials; writing and publishing of the Weekly Wok Blog, community meeting calendar establishment, meeting facilitation, wiki editing, policy & procedure establishment, and miscellaneous online documentation work, as the first-ever individual to fill this role under a unique Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) while remaining employed with MSU. Primary tools – Drupal, Confluence, Adobe Contribute, JIRA, Sakai, Photoshop, and Dreamweaver.

Project Lead, User Documentation Development, Kuali Financial System Project (July 2006 – November 2008) - Kuali Financial System project – leader of virtual, geographically-dispersed team of writers and editors at multiple higher education institutions and commercial affiliate firms to produce user documentation and online help for KFS software. Coordinated a Documentation Subcommittee consisting of representatives from multiple higher ed institutions, as well as leading a documentation development team of authors and editors. Established a style guide, documentation standards and procedures, requirements and strategy. Primary tools – Confluence, Word, SnagIt, Doc-To-Help, Acrobat.

Technical Writer & Software Trainer, Administrative Information Services (October 2004 – July 2006) – Hired by MSU, who created a position for me based on prior work as a technical writing consultant. Created user guides, quick reference guides, brochures, and online help for a variety of software application systems, in addition to training developers. Primary tools – Word, Framemaker, DocBook/OpenOffice.

Dec.'03-Jul.’04 Technical Writing Consultant, Proposal Manager HTC Global Services, Inc. Troy, MI

Contracted consultant within the Administrative Information Services (AIS) Department at MSU, when not acting as a Proposal Manager while "on the bench" between client projects. Management of all phases of a multi-platform software documentation project (Forms Tracking Utility application for Michigan State University), from design to build to implementation and training. Development and maintenance of Documentation Requirements and Strategy, Documentation Standards and Procedures, Project Glossary, Document Environment, User Guides, User Reference Manuals, Technical Reference Manuals, System Management Guides, Document Templates, Procedures, Navigation Instructions, Online Help, Marketing Brochures, Education Overview and Training Documents with output in HTML, XML, Word, Open Office and Adobe PDF.

May.'02-Nov.’03 Master Trainer, Instructional Designer Synova, Inc. (Ford contract) Troy, MI

Winner of Outstanding Service and Quality Award.-Nov.’02, and Outstanding Contributor award for Metrics Repository System, Feb.’03; Master Trainer (Instructional Designer / Training Administrator) for the eVEREST software development project for Ford Motor Company in Livonia. Train-the-trainer, technical editing & writing using Oracle Method (AIM), Oracle Tutor Author, Oracle Tutor Publisher, Oracle Courseware applications for web-based creation, publication and delivery of Student Guides, Instructor Guides, Quick Reference Guides, Desk Manuals, Online Help and E-Learning courses. Led QA Testing Team, wrote test scripts using Mercury Test Director.

Aug.'99-Feb.’02 Web Publishing Developer Oracle Corporation (State of Michigan contract) Okemos, MI

Oracle Service Industries, State & Local Consulting, Midwest Region. Chosen to join Oracle from sub-contract ranks for project with the State of Michigan. Increased responsibility in Business Analyst role after six months, in addition to technical editing & writing. Duties included development & maintenance of an intranet web site with database functionality for a software development project involving the integration of client’s systems. Participated in "roundtable" meetings with functional experts to capture business requirements, wrote pseudo-code, and served as documentation standards subject matter expert and project librarian.

Jan.'99-Jun.'00 Electronic Information Author IPG Services Corp.(General Motors contract) Milford, MI

"Hand-picked" from previous job (see TPI job below) for work on an electronic service information project, where I developed & implemented GM's innovative Controlled Automotive Service Language (CASL) English standards for translation to foreign languages; developed Document Type Definition (DTD) templates for increased software efficiency; configured & maintained project-specific enterprise software including Exceed, ftp, Arbortext & all Microsoft office products; trained new employees; gave presentations; administered databases; performed hardware & software troubleshooting & help desk support.

Nov.'97-Jan.'99 Technical Writer, Trainer TPI Technologies, Inc.(General Motors contract) Warren, MI

Designed technical training programs & served as an instructor for custom database authoring & editing software for electronic service information for www site, CDROM & paper manuals that included text, links, graphics, electrical schematics, thumbnails, hotspots, & diagnostic tables. Responsible for training & orientation of new employees. Relied upon for "superuser" database status, expertise in Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) & development of "user friendly" preparation standards & guidelines.

Contact this candidate