Technical writers are part detective and part reporter. Sleuthing through code changes, tech writers constantly sprint to assure that every feature in an iteration gets converted into instructions that any user can follow.
Sarah Maddox
- Product team:
- Technical Writing
- Years at Atlassian:
- 2
- Ideal Saturday:
- Breakfast in bed, rollerblading in Manly, then chocolate wherever.
About Sarah
I've written technical documentation in four countries: South Africa, England, Netherlands and Australia. Before turning to technical writing I worked as a developer for 9 years, then as a freelance writer and book indexer. Somewhere in the middle of that I spent a few years as a full-time mother.
In my first computer job, we coded our programs on paper and then the punch operators punched them onto 80-character cards. To minimise the use of precious computer resources, we dry-ran our programs by cutting and pasting pieces of paper on a wall. Yes, we really did move/add/subtract bits of data from "fields" marked on the paper, to test the logic! The punched cards doubled as plates at tea time. Drop a box of cards and you had some hopelessy scrambled logic.
That's where the agility came in: scrabbling around to pick up the dropped cards and pack them back into the box so that they could be fed into the card reader ;)
Now I'm an XTW (extreme technical writer) and an adept at explaining away the second tenet in the Agile Manifesto — that's the one about valuing "working software over comprehensive documentation". What makes my day? Writing docs that rock.
Sarah on technical writing in an agile company (1:57)
Sarah's favorite blog posts
Edwin Dawson
- Product team:
- Technical Writing
- Years at Atlassian:
- 1.3
- # of pushups:
- 100
About Edwin
I began my career working in technical support for Microsoft, which was occasionally amusing (but mostly saddening). From there, I spent many years as an IT journalist, reviewing consumer software, computers, gadgets and electronic entertainment.
I ended up editing a national magazine called PC Authority, which saw me travelling around the world to cover the latest silicon chip innovations and notebook technology from the world's largest vendors. While that was fun, I got tired of working day-to-day with people who seemed to have only the dimmest understanding of technology. When someone asked me, straight faced: "What is Google?" I knew it was time to leave.
In Atlassian, I finally found an environment packed with people who are as passionate about technology as I am. Every day, Atlassian's brilliant developers churn out original solutions to curly problems, which we document in the Technical Writing team. It's endlessly fascinating!
Edwin on the useful aspects of agile for tech writers (1:40)