SUMMARY:

• Over 25 years of experience researching, writing, editing, illustrating and indexing technical documents for a wide variety of audiences. Successful assignments at companies ranging from tech startups to the Fortune 10.
• Strong in software documentation: Computer science major and former software engineer who has since completed many software documentation projects. Able to easily handle highly technical assignments that many other technical writers would be unable to undertake effectively. Very familiar with all aspects of the SDLC (software development life cycle) and agile/scrum projects.
• Creator of innovative, - winning online help documentation, fully using the medium for a variety of delivery platforms, resulting in easy-to-use and effective end products.
• Skilled collaborator with engineers and other subject-matter experts to gather data and review document drafts.
• Document types: User guides, HITRUST cybersecurity documents, programmer guides (API/SDK documents, many other types of developer documentation), knowledgebase articles, business process descriptions, software requirement specs, guides, getting-started documents, installation guides, translated (localized) documents, repair/maintenance guides, and many others. Also skilled at editing and indexing.

TECHNICAL SKILLS:

Word processors: Word, FrameMaker, Quip.

Online help development tools: RoboHelp, WebWorks Publisher, HDK, Doc-to-Help, Sandcastle Help File Builder.

Content management systems: Adobe Experience Manager (AEM), Confluence.

HTML tools: Confluence, Dreamweaver, FrontPage.

Online content delivered in: Websites, Confluence wikis, HTML Help, ServiceNow knowledgebases, Windows help.

Other software tools and technologies: Microsoft Office suite (Word, Excel, Visio, PowerPoint), SharePoint, Acrobat, SnagIt, numerous source/version control tools, Gliffy, GhostDoc, Lotus Notes, Markdown, Draw.io.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:

Confidential

Responsibilities:

• As a Software engineer: Designed, coded, tested, and maintained software for GPS receiver test equipment, industrial process control systems, and high-resolution laser printers - an unusual level of software expertise for a tech writer.

Confidential

Responsibilities:

• Smoothed the transition for a large staff of software developers learning how to effectively develop and adapt code for a radically new software architecture by editing and writing highly technical programmer documentation. The content described fundamentally different data structures, programming paradigms, and many other topics.
• Enabled team leaders to plan for the conversion process by writing lists of issues to consider before starting.

Confidential

Responsibilities:

• Increased the likelihood of successful cybersecurity by writing and modifying evidence and procedure documents to support 3 periodic HITRUST healthcare cybersecurity s. Working on a team of six, the project impact was hundreds of millions of dollars in retained and new business.
• Improved the effectiveness of the 1000-file HITRUST documentation set by applying file naming standards, implementing consistent page layout elements, polishing the writing, and making other enhancements.
• Captured best practices by writing SOP/how-to documents for the network engineering and network security teams for setup and operation of several third-party security products.

Confidential

Responsibilities:

• Helped retain the customer base by writing, editing and formatting procedure documents to support HITRUST healthcare cybersecurity .
• Aided other tech writer teammates by doing peer reviews.

Confidential

Responsibilities:

• Assisted on a small healthcare software company’s HITRUST cybersecurity by writing and editing policy and procedure documents.
• Clarified text by making extensive improvements to content written by a non-native English speaker.

Confidential

Responsibilities:

• Aided content author transition to a new content management system by writing and illustrating team-specific user guides for Adobe Experience Manager (AEM).

Confidential

Responsibilities:

• Enhanced wind turbine uptime and operations by using DITA techniques to write, edit, and illustrate a user’s guide for a wind-farm management application.

Confidential

Responsibilities:

• Supported software development efforts by collecting, editing and testing a Confluence documentation wiki for a financial data analysis API.

Confidential

Responsibilities:

• Passed operational knowledge from outgoing system engineers to incoming replacements by writing and editing software configuration and business process documentation for a large multi-vendor computer security system.
• Captured business process expertise by writing and illustrating a detailed description of a computer equipment purchase and deployment process, collaborating with the person currently using the process.

Confidential

Responsibilities:

• Tracked the detailed status of over 140 documents through stages of info gathering, writing, review, and publication.

Confidential

Responsibilities:

• Improved third-party developers’ integration experience by writing, editing, and illustrating a programmers’ SDK guide for a security/authentication software product. Validly formatted code samples to illustrate the documentation.

Confidential

Responsibilities:

• Enhanced IT department adoption of a new software subsystem (a user interface framework) by writing and editing technical how-to procedures for an in-house programmer's guide.
• Reduced developer SME support by directly reading C# & JavaScript source code to gather information.

Confidential

Responsibilities:

• Increased the number of websites and mobile applications able to run on a new Nokia feature phone by writing, editing and illustrating technical developer documents (method descriptions, lists of supported HTML/CSS tags, etc.).

Confidential

Responsibilities:

• Improved user acceptance and compliance by writing and editing user installation, instruction and marketing-type material for end users without strong computer skills.
• Captured and preserved business process knowledge by working with senior IT staff to create process documentation.