A technical communication veteran of 25 years, Shannon McCue is a manager, editor, and leader with a strong track record in creating thorough, usable documentation for users, administrators, and business analysts. At her current company, Aristocrat Technologies, Inc., she manages a technical writing team who writes casino video gaming documentation while immersed in the Agile framework. Over the last eight years, she has become more focused on process improvements, especially Scrum and Kanban methods, and how they can work for or against technical writers.

Connecting Silos Using a Community of Practice

Does your company have content developers spread throughout the organization? Maybe some writers use Agile, some use waterfall. Some writers work remotely across different time zones while others are co-located. Writers or groups of writers produce content completely unrelated to their counterparts in another part of the company. They use different tools and style guides. Besides job titles, they seem to have little in common. We’ve all heard the phrase “”working in a silo””. Maybe we like our silo! Yet we can come together on standards, processes, tools, and more. Working as a unit not only benefits every writer, it helps the bottom line, the company’s reputation, and consumers of our content.

This session explains how to build your effective community of practice (CoP). A leader of a technical writing CoP for 4+ years, I will explain how a volunteer group can come together on toolsets, style guides, and so much more to work as a unified team in spirit, regardless of org charts.

This session will explain lessons learned about:

• How to get busy writers to join your Community of Practice (CoP)
• Tips for getting results from a volunteer CoP
• Solutions to common problems”