Roles In Software Industry¶
The roles in the software industry are vast with countless niches and specialties. For the Technical Writer (TW), 30% of the time involves communicating with other people, knowledge sharing, clarifying the doubts that occurred while writing the document. So, Technical Writer should be aware of others job duties and responsibilities to approach the right person as and when needed appreciating the value of time of both with a clear mindset. The Technical Writer must be aware of these roles and departments in it that are as follows:
Developer¶
Developers are the backbone of the industry. They are responsible for coding, design, writing initial test cases involved in building the software through software programming languages. Their job is to analyze and modify the existing software. They are more technology-oriented and focus on how to implement a feature.
For what TW can approach developer:¶
If the audience of TW involves developers or TW is creating documents for teaching recruits, code knowledge sharing of the software is required.
TW approaches a developer for clarifying the coding aspects such as code and syntax used in the programming and software feature related queries.
Before TW approaches a developer, basic knowledge of that technology is a must.
Quality Assurance / Tester¶
QA assures the quality of the product by writing test plans. They ensure operating systems and software sustain all the extreme test cases. Their job involves testing the end-user applications that meet user needs.
For what TW can approach QA:¶
If the audience of TW involves QA / Tester, the process of software testing needs documentation.
TW approaches QA for understanding the purpose of the particular test and the reason behind the test case.
Before TW’s approach to QA, TW should acquaint with the product purpose and aim.
Consultant / Presales Consultants¶
Consultants are the people who understand the customer’s needs and pitch them the software. They possess in-depth knowledge of the product as well as business needs. They are experts in business as well as customer needs.
Presales Consultants work closely with sales, services, engineering, and technical support resources to ensure proposed deals include technical solutions that address customer needs.
For what TW can approach consultants:¶
TW can approach consultants to understand and learn about the product. TWs make documents so that consultants can pitch the product to their customers.
Manager¶
The Manager deals with the scheduling, dependencies, resourcing assigning tasks of the project to the team members. Manager roles can further be divided into three types depending upon their responsibilities. They are:-
a. People Manager
b. Project Manager
c. Technical Manager
People Manager¶
People Manager manages the staff needs within the company, performs employee performance evaluations, hires staff, advises upper management staff-related concerns and issues. The people Manager also tracks the man-hours.
TW rarely contacts people managers for documentation-related queries.
Project Manager¶
Project Managers play the important role in planning, executing, monitoring, controlling, and closing projects. They are responsible for project delivery in a decided time frame and cost. They monitor project progress and solve issues that arise. They ensure stakeholders’ satisfaction.
The roles and responsibilities of the Project Manager coincide with the Product Manager.
Technical Manager¶
Technical Manager manages the dev team. They are involved in the delegation of tasks to team members. They look after the technical aspects of product development. They may or may not handle the actual management duties but generally has responsibilities that overlap with those of a developer. They don’t tend to have a lot of time to code but come from a coding background. They are the people who have worked in the company for a long time and know all the old technical issues.
For what TW can approach Manager:¶
TW can approach the manager to get help from their team members to solve doubts regarding the development of a product.
Software Architect¶
A software architect is a software development expert. They are responsible for designing, developing, and executing software solutions to address business issues. They are responsible for providing architectural blueprints and technical leadership. They are also responsible for evaluating and recommending tools, technologies, and processes for the product under development. They are experts in solving coding-related problems efficiently.
For what TW can approach them:¶
TW can approach software architects to understand the product in development.
Business Analysts¶
Business analysts analyze data, processes, and information to solve business problems and ensure projects run smoothly. They may help implement solutions or create a framework to scale the customers’ business. They also analyze the business environment to identify new opportunities to increase efficiency and reduce costs.
For what TW can approach Business analyst:¶
TW acts as a channel of communication. Therefore, they approach business analysts to understand processes, procedures, and requirements and convey them to others.TW has to identify and document improvements and share them effectively across an organization.
Product Manager¶
Product Managers deal with a particular product, handle high-level scheduling, resourcing. They are responsible for defining the feature roadmap. They bridge the gap between vision and execution, breaking down high-level strategies into actionable steps.
For what TW can approach Product manager:¶
TW can approach to product manager to get insights on the product roadmap, clarification on the new features of the product if any.
Technical Writer¶
The technical writer handles the documentation for the software for the internal organization and the public. Technical writers are the people who both understand the functionality of the software and have the language skills to explain it well. They bridge the gap between the user and the product.
Support¶
Support people are the frontline of the business. They are responsible for answering, troubleshooting, and resolving technical issues to keep the employees productive and customers happy. They identify and escalate any immediate problems to the respective department. There are three levels in support:
a. P1 Level - It is the road blocker in the usage of the product and hence immediately assigned to the development team.
b. P2 Level - The customer issues are solved, walk around the feature is given to the customers. If still are not resolved, the tickets are raised and then assigned to the development team.
c. P3 Level - The user understands the product features by the support team.
For what TW can approach Support:¶
TW should approach the support team to understand user concerns and problems. TW addresses those issues and clarifies them through documentation.