Making sense of complex matters
Technical products, software and services are not self-explanatory. The specialists in our field ensure everybody gets the most out of them.
What is Technical Communication?
Technical communication is the process of defining, creating and delivering information products of information for use – for the safe, efficient, effective and sustainable use of products (goods, technical systems, software, services).
Communication about Products
Ever since humans started producing things, they have communicated with each other about the fruit of their work. They talk with each other to
- share their ideas with others before they create the product,
- show the finished products to others,
- explain what their products are good for and how they can be used,
- warn them about misuse of the product to prevent damage or personal injuries,
- train others how to use the products in the intended way, or
- offer their products for sale.
Information Products
If such information cannot be delivered directly, it is provided through written, visual, or other indirect forms of communication. Human history offers many striking examples of product‑related information—from prehistoric paintings depicting the use of certain tools to Leonardo da Vinci’s visionary sketches of innovative machines.
Even today, complex technical products cannot generally be used safely, efficiently, effectively, and sustainably without supplementary information for use. In practice, this information for use is integrated into the product, supplied alongside it, or published elsewhere, for example online. The state-of-the-art and preferred method of disseminating information is through electronic media accessed via an appropriate device. However, information is still very often distributed in printed form when required by the target audience or by legal regulations.
In technical communication, objects that contain abstract information for use are commonly referred to as "information products." These information products are created during the main phases of the product lifecycle, which together constitute the product’s information lifecycle.
By analogy with the way we talk about product development, the process of creating information products is often referred to as "information development," or, more commonly, "technical documentation" or "technical communication."
Developing Information Products
The typical tasks that must be performed to create information products can be visualized in a generic taxonomy. The one shown here was developed by a tekom task force during the 2014 relaunch of tekom’s professional certification program. This taxonomy does not describe a real process. In practice, processes may focus on different tasks in different depths, process steps may overlap, some steps may be repeated, and some may even be left out.
This taxonomy distinguishes among
- the core process in seven steps, with three to seven sub-steps,
- several support and parallel processes, and
- the management process.
It can be used as a basis for
- modeling process descriptions,
- defining sectoral skill sets and specializations,
- developing educational, training and certification programs for technical communication, and
- clustering all kinds of activities related with technical communication.
It is also very likely applicable to many other information or content creation processes.
Technical Communicators
To run the core, support, parallel and management processes in which information products are created, experts with quite a number of different skills and competencies are needed. These experts are usually called "technical communicators". In the software industry, the designation "technical writer" is widely used. The European Association for Technical Communication – tekom Europe is the largest professional organization for technical communicators worldwide.