By Jerry Grohovsky, Copyright 2018. JPG & Associates, Inc.

You may want to consider having your technical writing resources be located on-site (or at the client site) if:

  • Day-to-day (or frequent face-to-face interactions) with subject matter experts (SMEs) are required.
  • There are frequent meetings which are more effective in-person.
  • Authoring tools are tied into a priority, closed enterprise system (e.g., XML based, such as Abortext).
  • Confidentiality of engineering documentation, software development, product development, product release, etc., is of the highest priority.
  • Frequent product interaction is necessary (such as with a test lab).
  • Product (hardware and software) cannot be easily transferred outside the client premises for a variety of reasons.

You may want to consider having your technical writing resources be located off-site (or remote) if:

  • Interaction with subject matter experts (SMEs) is infrequent, and can be easily facilitated by phone, email, and occasional on-site visits.
  • In-person meetings are infrequent.
  • Meetings can typically be done via virtual meeting applications (such as Go-To-Meeting, WebX, etc.).
  • Authoring tools are either VPN accessible or are accessible as purchased leased license (e.g., Adobe Suite).
  • Confidentiality is not at a high priority.
  • Frequent product interaction is not
  • Product (hardware and software) can be easily moved or accessed outside the client premises.
  • Neither the office space or computer equipment is available.