The Writers Block ties up with Virginia Tech University to Conduct Research into Technical Documentation Off-shoring

The Writers Block (TWB) in association with Virginia Tech, Virginia, USA announces the launch of a first-of-its kind research project on outsourcing and off-shoring of technical documentation. The project is entitled “Teaching Technical Documentation in the Context of Outsourcing: Comparative Assessment of Cross-Cultural and Rhetorical Competence”.

This path-breaking project will address the cultural and rhetorical dilemmas for future technical writers in America as well as for offshore professionals in technical writing located in India. The study will aim at identifying the creative and professional skills and strengths of American and Indian students of technical writing and attempt to understand cultural stereotypes and negative perceptions regarding offshore workers and their competencies by evaluating actual samples of their work. The main component of this study will be assessment of documents produced by the American and Indian students. Once the documentation projects are completed and revised according to the usability results and they will be graded by an international panel of academia and industry experts.

The purpose of the study is to ascertain: What jobs/tasks in technical writing projects can be effectively outsourced; and What jobs/tasks can be better performed in the United States in order to produce cultural and rhetorically competent documentation? The study is not only timely but also imperative given the lack of empirical research in the area and the current professional fears, doubts and misconceptions about outsourcing prevalent in the United States. While outsourcing is a fairly commonplace phenomenon technical documentation outsourcing is less so, especially in the context of offshore documentation. The US document outsourcing market is 22% of the total US documentation market, and European research reveals that only 20% companies have any strategy in place to manage and control document output. This presents a large outsourcing opportunity and value gains for both these companies as well as their vendors. However most of this outsourcing is handled by small one or two person companies (essentially onsite contractors) embedded within the development teams, and not by larger specialist outsourcing companies. This becomes especially interesting in the Indian context since this is a significant outsourcing opportunity and the challenges of such outsourcing – operational and IP related - need to be clearly understood.

Since there is little data that is available on the subject and since TWB has clearly an understanding of, and a commitment to the market, TWB decided to work with Virginia Tech for original research to understand these drivers and challenges. Says Dr Evia, “We decided to collaborate with The Writers Block in this project based on a personal recommendation from the former president of STC in India according to whom The Writers Block and particularly Dr. Annapoorna Ravichander are creative and innovative forces in outsourced technical documentation projects. We are very happy and satisfied with this decision.”

Founded in 1872, Virginia Tech is a comprehensive, innovative research university with the largest full-time student population in Virginia. The University is ranked 56th in the USA and also has strong links with the corporate sector. The University has chosen to collaborate with The Writers Block for this specific research project as TWB is India’s leading provider of technical documentation outsourcing and training services and runs the professionally valued TWB Fundamental and TWB Associate certifications programs. It is also the first Indian company to provide an online course, TWBOnline specifically on technical writing.

The research will be jointly headed by Carlos Evia, Virginia Tech (Virginia, USA) and Dr. Annapoorna Ravichander, The Writers Block (Bangalore, India)


About TWB:

TWB is India's leading Technical Documentation service provider. Founded in 2005 with the objective of providing world-class technical documentation outsourcing and training services to suit the demands of global technology companies, today the company provides technical documentation outsourcing services to over 35 organizations including Accenture, Samsung, MindTree, Siemens, AOL, Titan, Intel, Wipro, CGN, BearingPoint, US Technolgies and others. TWB executes Offshore Documentation deliveries from its Bangalore facilities and Onsite at customer locations. Over 150 companies including Lucent Technologies, SAP Labs, Wipro, Infosys, Intel among others hire technical writers from the TWB Associate and TWB Fundamental Certification programs. More information on TWB is available on www.twb.in

Contact:

Dr Annapoorna Ravichander
Director - Training
Mobile: +91.9880844862
Phone: +91.80.41254350
Email: dr.annapoorna@twb.in

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