Technical Writer Resume

Title
Technical Writer

Primary Skills
FrameMaker, Word, Visio, Process, Training, User Guides, Online Help, Design Documentation, Compliance

Location
Canada-ON-Toronto

Posted
Mar-04-09


I have many years experience writing documentation, from user guides to technical specifications, and from online help, online books, and training material to processes. I have experience writing standard operating procedures for a help desk as well as the medical software industry. I have also participated in training, regulatory, and audit activities. Also, I have experience writing design documents, functional requirements, data models, and architecture documents. I feel my writing and user documentation experience along with my editing and my recent experience with leading the implementation of a knowledge base make me a candidate for your company.

EMPLOYMENT EXPERIENCE

2008 (6 months)
BMC Senior Technical Writer
* Wrote a data management administrator's guide and configuration guide for the next release of software product. Included adding user story examples single sourcing, creating PDF, strict adherence to a mature documentation process.

2008 (2 months)
Shepell-fgi Senior Technical Writer
* Wrote/edited disaster recovery and pandemic documentation.

2007-2008 (8 months)
BMC Senior Contract Technical Writer / Lead
* Lead the effort to create a knowledge base for a help desk department. Involved:
- Creating planning documents
- Drawing up new organization for SharePoint site
- Customizing new SharePoint site organization
- Leading team meetings and setting goals
- Reworking existing information on SharePoint site into knowledge articles
- Mentoring team on writing knowledge articles for new tickets, as applicable
- Managing SharePoint site
- Creating and maintaining help desk metrics site
- Writing help desk process to roll out Remedy Knowledge Management
- Migration of SharePoint knowledge articles to Remedy Knowledge Management
- Supporting team as they took over ownership of knowledge base and help desk ticket process (with knowledge article creation - RKM was the tool)

2007 (2 months, part-time)
Pareto Senior Technical Writer
* Wrote user and administration guides for a web application. Also wrote an architecture document for a kiosk application and assembly cards for the kiosks.

2007 (4 months)
TranSched Senior Technical Writer
* Wrote operations online help for a transit scheduling application.

2006 (1 month)
Ontario Telemedicine Network Senior Technical Writer
* Assisted documenting functional design documentation for the Ontario Telemedicine Network that was being integrated into one network.

June-Sept 2006 (4 months) Hewlett-Packard (HP)
* Documented technical training material and design documents. Also involved in planning activities for the next phase of a release.

February-June 2006 (4 months) The Loyalty Group
* Documented desk procedures, network diagrams, and several SOX nonconformances for the Infrastructure department.

January-February 2006 (1 month) Diageo
* Created training material for an SAP system.

Sept -December 2005 (4 months) CIBC
* Created Support Guides for infrastructure projects that were being optimized and migrated to a central support group.

March 2005-July 2005 (4 months) Ernst & Young
Senior Documentation Specialist
* Wrote project documentation for an already developed .NET time and expense application that was being implemented world-wide in the company. (They didn't have time to document it as they were developing it.) Included SRS, Data model, Architecture document, operational procedures, internal processes, and project plan.

Nov 2003- Feb 2005 (14 mo.) GE Medical Systems
Senior Technical Writer/Project Lead
* Wrote ISO/FDA processes and work instructions and software specification templates for the design controls (R&D software development cycle) and other areas of the Quality System to move the newly taken over company to an ISO-certifiable status.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Assisted in taking the existing incomplete quality system and turning it into a GE-/FDA-/ISO-compliant quality system in three months.
* Wrote, scheduled, and delivered training material to teach employees the new process.
* Participated in internal and customer audits.
* Librarian for process documents, version control and signoffs.
* Mentored process document owners on some of the regulatory/quality requirements for the documents they owned.
* Wrote and formatted user documentation for the laboratory information system.

2003 (7 mo.) The Loyalty Group (airmiles.ca)
Senior Technical Writer
* Wrote Functional Requirements and end-user documentation for AIR MILES initiatives.

2002 (4 mo.) ICI Paints
Senior Technical Writer
* Rewrote and updated manuals for a financial accounting system on the AS/400.

2002 (1 mo.) IBM Canada
Senior Technical Writer
* Created e-leraning material for a bank's processes using Camtasia.

2002 (2 mo.) Royal Bank through CAMTOS
Senior Technical Writer
* Wrote guides describing how to use the project templates and file repository system. As well, helped create the project templates for all of the MS Office applications, and edited and formatted project technical and business specification documents.

2002 (2 mo.) Sun Microsystems
Senior Technical Writer
* Created a course developer's API guide and a student user interface API guide for a learning management system that allowed students to take courses over the Internet.

2001 (3 mo.) TSE
Senior Technical Writer/Editor
* Created templates, helped define the Software Development Life Cycle process, and helped set up a documentation department.

2000 (10 mo.) ISM (now IBM)
Senior Technical Writer/Editor
* Created templates, edited and formatted the development documents, and created user documentation for an Order Management System for the financial securities industry.
* Team lead for another writer on the project.

1999 (6 mo.) InSystems Technologies Inc.
Senior Technical Writer
* Wrote training courses for a document management product running on Windows.

1999 (3 mo.) Claymore Inc.
Senior Technical Writer
* Wrote and edited information for a web-based training course, delivering a large amount of information in a short amount of time.

1999 (4 mo.) PRI Automation (formerly Promis Systems)
Senior Technical Writer
* Wrote Customization Guide and compiled HTML help for a Manufacturing Execution System (MES) modeling tool used by engineers to create, edit, and view factory configurations and process specifications for the semi-conductor industry.
* Maintained the CSS style file and Word style files for the compiled HTML help.

1998 (3 mo.) IBM Canada Ltd.
Senior Technical Writer
* Wrote user's guide and rebuild book for an installation of the Tivoli network control system.
* Compiled developer's functional specifications.
* Created Word style sheets for the manuals.

1998 (4 mo.) Hummingbird Communications Ltd.
Senior Technical Writer
* Updated Hummingbird Basic (programming language) Guide, XDK (SDK) Guide, plus the online help for a suite of communication products.

1998 (3 mo.) Macmillan Computer Publishing
Free-lance Senior Technical Writer
* Wrote three chapters about Year 2000 issues for a COBOL book called COBOL Unleashed that is available in bookstores.

1994-1998 IBM Toronto Lab
Senior Associate Technical Writer/Team Leader
* Updated Language Reference for Fortran on AIX.
* Team Lead for two other writers on RPG/400 and C/400 compilers (wrote documentation plans, schedules, held regular team meetings, resolved/coached as issues arose, and interfaced with Rochester - the AS/400 documentation lead site.
* Maintained user's guide and reference for AS/400 COBOL, maintained and re-organized user's guides and tutorials for AS/400 application development tools, and developed a couple of web pages. I was also a Team Leader for the writers on AS/400 C and AS/400 RPG.

1993-1994 Northern Telecom
Senior Technical Writer
* Maintained administration guides for a voice mail product.

1992-1993 Sietec Open Systems (a division of Siemens Nixdorf)
Technical Writer
* Organized and wrote a general product user's guide, administration guide, and a component tool guide for a SmallTalk visual programming environment that ran in the OS/2 and Windows environments. The general product user's guide also included a tutorial.
* Created the sample program for the tutorial.

1989-1992 Sykes Enterprises Incorporated (SEI) of Canada
Technical Writer
* Organized and wrote a combined user's guide and tutorial plus the online help for an OS/2 C++ debugger. The guide described the procedures for monitoring data storage and executing programs in the debugger. The guide also included a function reference.
* Maintained IBM documentation for various releases of SQL, tools used in for AS/400 application development, and AIX (IBM Unix) X Windows OSF Motif CASE programming tools. I also built and maintained several online books that accompanied the products.
* Organized and wrote a combined user's guide and installation guide for a factory automation protocol interface that allowed operators to configure, start programs for, and maintain the automation of factory robots.

1988-1989 Bull HN Information Systems (previously Honeywell)
Technical Writer
* Wrote the Administration and Operators Guides for a networking product that monitored network nodes and allowed network operators to troubleshoot network problems.

1985-1988 Bull HN Information Systems (previously Honeywell)
Computer Operator/Programmer
* Wrote several programs in COBOL and C for the computer operations environment, while also completing my duties as a computer operator.

TECHNICAL EXPERIENCE
IBM Text Development and Processing Tools
* SGML
* ID WorkBench
* BookMaster
* Xedit
* BookManager
* IPF
* PUBS

Workstation and PC Desktop Publishing, Word Processing, and Graphics Tools
* Microsoft Word for Windows (95 and 97)
* FrameMaker
* FrameBuilder
* Microsoft Word for the Mac
* Interleaf
* Visio
* CorelDraw
* Camtasia

Online Help Development Environments
* Windows (95 and 98)
* OS/400 (AS/400)
* RoboHelp
* Doc-to-Help
* Adobe Captivate
* OS/2 (Warp)
* Compiled HTML

Workstation and Mainframe Operating Systems and Environments
* Windows (95 and 98)
* OS/400 (AS/400)
* OS/2 (Warp)
* VM/CMS
* AIX (IBM Unix)
* MOD400
* GCOS8
* Unix
* MS-DOS
* Windows NT

Other Tools
* Doors
* Remedy
* SharePoint
* SourceSafe
* Rational (SOdA - documentation tool)
* Excel
* PowerPoint
* XML
* HTML

Programming Languages and Methodologies
* Java
* COBOL
* C
* C++
* SmallTalk
* Basic
* Agile

EDUCATION

Training Courses
* From Desk to Bookstore: Making the Leap to Writing as a Career, Writer¿s Union of Canada, 2009.
* Microsoft Access 2003, Ryerson, December 2006. A course towards the IT Management certificate.
* IT Project Management, August 2005. A course towards the IS Management Certificate at Ryerson University.
* Business Process Redesign, August 2005. A course towards the IS Management Certificate at Ryerson University.
* Systems Analysis and Design, April 2005. A course towards the IT Management Certificate at Ryerson University.
* Business Information Systems, April 2005. A course towards the IT Management Certificate at Ryerson University.
* How Adults Learn, Langevin Learning Series, 2003.
* XML: Introduction to Structured Markup for Documents and Data, a course towards the Internet Business and Technology Certificate, U of T, 2001.
* Web Site Implementation and Management, a course towards the Internet Business and Technology Certificate, U of T, 2000.
* STC workshops in voice (speaking) skills, documentation department management, and finance for contract employees, 2000.
* AS/400 for Programmers, 1997.
* Java for Programmers, 1996.
* Producing Multimedia, U of T, 1996.
* Visual C++, Institute for Computer Studies, 1994.
* Course in Sietec Project Management, 1993.
* Course in Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme object-oriented programming design tool (MOOD), 1993.
* Course in SmallTalk, 1992.
* STC workshop in Interleaf, 1991.
* Course in Interleaf 3.0 features, 1989.
* Honeywell OSI/DSA networking architecture, 1988.
* Two courses in Honeywell GCOS 8 system utilization, 1986.

College Education
* Honeywell Institute for Continuing Education (became the Institute for Computer Studies), 1985.
I received my Programming Analysis Diploma.

University Education
* Carleton University, Ottawa, 1982.
I received my Honours Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology.

AWARDS
* Appreciation Award, IBM, 1998.
* Personal Achievement Award, IBM, 1996.
* Monetary bonus for outstanding performance, SEI, 1989.
* Bull Golden Link Award, Bull HN Information Systems, 1989.

PROFESSIONAL DESIGNATIONS
* STC 2007-2008 Competition Judge.
* Hospitality Manager, STC, 2005-2007.
* Competition Manager, STC, 2002-2003.
* Employment Manager, STC, 2000-2002.
* Volunteer Treasurer, OFOS, 1997-1999.

OTHER ACTIVITIES
Sailing, White Sail I, II, and III, 2002.


Certifications
See above


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