Agile Development: Challenges in Transforming Technical Documentation Departments

Event: Agile Austin Meeting
Date: August 5, 2008
Time: 6:00 - 8:30 PM
Location: Microsoft Technology Center; Stonebridge Plaza One; 9606 North Mopac, Suite 200, Austin TX, 78759
Speaker: Mike Wethington – Technical Communications Manager at Troux Technologies
Title: Agile Development: Challenges in Transforming Technical Documentation Departments

Description
While the Agile movement continues to gain momentum, very little information or guidance has been provided addressing the needs of Technical Communications or other groups like Quality Assurance and Technical Support who are “downstream” in the process. As a result, Technical Communications departments struggle with balancing the needs of customers and keeping up with Engineering groups in the fast paced, minimally-defined requirements Agile model. This presentation will identify challenges for Technical Communications departments in Agile environments, provide transformation strategies, and give clear understanding of the up-front challenges (both technical and managerial) for documentation in an Agile development environment.

Speaker Bio
Mike Wethington has been a Technical Communications Manager for ten years and a professional writer for over eighteen years. He is a Certified Scrum Practitioner and has worked on several (successful and unsuccessful) Agile projects for different companies. Currently he is the Technical Communications Manager and a ScrumMaster at Troux Technologies (www.troux.com) in Austin, TX.

He has made presentations about Agile to the Central Texas DITA group and recently presented at the International Society for Technical Communications conference. He is the Group Manager for the Agile Development and Technical Communications group on The Content Wrangler Community (http://thecontentwrangler.ning.com/), the leading Technical Communications web community. Currently he is developing a course for the Center for Information-Development Management (CIDM) to educate and transition technical communicators to an Agile environment.

Additional Information
Cost: Free
Map & Directions: From South of Hwy 183: Travel North on Mopac (Loop 1) exiting at Capitol of Texas Hwy. Make a U-turn before the traffic light. Go one block on the access road. Stonebridge Plaza One is to the right, with an entrance between the two towers. Building One is on the right as you enter. (map)
More Info: info@AgileAustin.org
Agenda: Sign-in and Networking 6:00 - 6:30 PM
Announcements, Presentation 6:30 - 8:00 PM
Q&A and Networking 8:00 - 8:30 PM

Proof of Attendance forms will be provided for PMI (PDU), ASQ (RU) and PDMA (PDH) re-certifications