Instead of sending your documentation staff to school, why not bring the instructor to them? Working with a documentation consultant that is willing to share his experience and technical expertise with your project team will considerably upgrade the talent and productivity of your documentation team members.

Did you know that most documentation consultants can save as much as ten times their fee for the companies that employ them? In today's competitive market, money cannot be made using antiquated documentation techniques. Knowledge of the latest methods and tools is key to creating top-notch documentation. Would you care to guess how much money could be lost by NOT employing the proper methods? We know of a contractor whose documentation rewrites cost nearly $2 million dollars! Moreover, it came right out of their profit margin!

Using a documentation consultant can save TIME and MONEY on your next documentation project and help ensure that you do indeed show a profit. By infusing your documentation group with the latest industry techniques and methods, you can provide your customers with top-notch documents for the current project and many projects to come.

The following 20 items are some of the real benefits that your company can gain by hiring the right documentation consultant for your project. As the scope and magnitude of the project expands, the potential value of the documentation consultant also expands. So, if you have been "on the fence" about hiring a documentation consultant or have been developing documents the same way for the past 50 years, these points should help change your mind.

The Documentation Consultant...

1) ...represents his client to the customer and to that client he represents himself. His reputation is built solely on the quality of the document he produces. As such, his only objective is to do the very best job possible.

2) ...has knowledge of pitfalls and problems that have occurred on past and similar projects, perhaps on your competitors projects. Avoid making the same mistakes.

3) ...leaves the project design team members with an understanding of the documentation processes and greater capability to document their own design.

4) ...has experience working with design engineers and programmers, and is able to effectively communicate with them.

5) ...knows how to reduce the burn rate of hours at the project startup.

6) ...knows the right questions to ask in determining what the customer needs.

7) ...can distinguish the customer's "needs" from his "wants." This is particularly useful during the proposal phase.

8) ...is experienced in avoiding the costly pitfalls that can occur during a documentation development effort.

9) ...can identify the high cost items from the customer's document "wish list" and ensures those items are properly estimated.

10) ...can provide insight into the documentation styles and preferences of other customers being solicited by his client.

11) ...can educate your current documentation staff without the expense of sending them to school. With high personnel turnover rates, the consultant can stabilize your team's knowledge base.

12) ...can identify the documentation roles and can choose the right people for those roles.

13) ...can establish the objective of each document and ensure that objective is maintained throughout the effort.

14) ...knows short-cuts for developing documents that can save money and time.

15) ...can choreograph the documentation segment of design reviews to minimize document preparation and rewrites.

16) ...has a network of other consultants that can be tapped to obtain information or fill voids in technical knowledge.

17) ...is more likely to contact the customer for task or requirement clarification. In addition, can ask pointed questions at customer reviews and meetings without political reserve.

18) ...knows which questions to ask and when to ask them to get timely answers.

19) ...has experience working with the project and engineering managers to schedule meetings for engineering input and document review.

20) ...is experienced at listening during customer meetings.

The next newsletter in this series will be entitled "Well Begun is Half Done." A list of all titles in the series "How to Save A Quarter Million On Your Documentation Tasks" may be found on The DocuDoctor's page of MSD's web site.