15+ years of technical writing, technical editing, and training experience. Expertise in Information Technology Service Management (ITSM), cloud, and telecommunications.
11+ years of experience documenting ITIL processes.
Proven ability to write, edit, and maintain accurate customer-facing content for technical and non-technical audiences.
Focused on continuous improvement of the customer experience by gathering customer feedback on documentation. Work with subject matter experts consisting of engineers, developers, technicians, project managers, and service owners to ensure clear, reliable instructions.
Skilled at preparing software user guides, installation manuals, troubleshooting procedures, system administrator manuals, IT knowledge base articles, online help, multimedia web-based training courses, and marketing materials.
Experienced documenting the software development lifecycle (SDLC), from software design to flow diagrams to interface control documents to test procedures.
Expert using popular knowledge management / content management tools—including SharePoint, WordPress, and ServiceNow—to write, edit, publish, and update content.
11+ years of writing and styling content using markup languages—including Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), HTML5, XHTML, XML, and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).
Familiar with XML publishing tools, including MadCap FLare, RoboHelp, and FrameMaker. Skilled at single-source publishing in multiple formats: web, print, knowledge base, eLearning, and app-based help.
11+ years of front-end website design of SharePoint and WordPress sites, including user interface (UI), user experience (UX), layout, navigation, and content.
Basic knowledge of programming languages, including JavaScript (JS).
Technical writing and training highlights
As a key member of a 200-person corporate IT service management team, I transformed the corporate IT documentation into an essential reference for IT team members and more than 22,000 employees.
I wrote, edited, published, and maintained more than 100 Information Technology (IT) knowledge base articles with step-by-step procedures in ServiceNow on the company intranet.
Knowledge base articles included how-to technical instructions, software user guides, system administrator manuals, installation manuals, cloud computing procedures, cybersecurity procedures, and troubleshooting guides. Knowledge articles were viewed more than 1000 times each week and used to quickly resolve incidents, answer IT questions, and reduce the number of technical support calls.
I wrote detailed instructions to upgrade 7600 computers to Windows 10. These instructions allowed employees—for the first time—to upgrade their own computers rather than relying on the IT department to perform the upgrade.
For the U.S. Marine Corps: I planned and wrote technical documentation and training for a $326 million dollar contract to provide a Tactical Video Capture System (TVCS). TVCS is used to record and replay training exercises at Marine bases around the world. The user guides and training received rave reviews from TVCS operators, who appreciated the clear step-by-step instructions.
To allow the Marines to train future operators themselves: I created Train-the-Trainer courses for field instructors that included a Train-the-Trainer binder filled with course outlines, course objectives, tests, student materials, and instructor notes.
After a software developer received numerous complaints from dissatisfied customers, I was hired to overhaul the shoddy documentation for a video surveillance software suite. After receiving the rewritten user guides, the major customer was thrilled and bought additional services. The lesson learned is that awful documentation drives away customers while excellent documentation increases sales.
I reduced field training costs for a video surveillance software suite by developing computer-based multimedia training courses using Captivate, PowerPoint, and Camtasia. I designed and wrote lessons; captured and edited software simulations; wrote scripts; and incorporated video clips, audio voiceover, and product photos into training modules.
I designed and edited a set of user guides, quick-reference cards, installation guides, and operation and maintenance guides for a wireless mesh telecommunications system for underground coal miners. The system is installed in 75 mines that produce 25% of the country’s coal. I helped capture this market share by working with a graphic designer to create marketing materials that included a full-color product catalog, product brochures, trade show posters and banners, and promotional items such as mousepads.
I created the first knowledge management / document management process for a 200-person corporate IT department.
After spending months reviewing and discarding obsolete procedures, I set up the first corporate IT document repository in SharePoint and served as the Site Administrator.
I devised innovative ITIL processes for document control, numbering, validation, review, approval, release, change management, and storage.
I served as knowledge manager during the agile software development, testing, deployment, and operation of ServiceNow, an enterprise IT service management application. I wrote user stories to define required software features for the knowledge management module and tested new features. I met the deadline to move IT instructions from SharePoint to ServiceNow.
Project management highlights
I directed a team of writers, graphic designers, and trainers during the software development, test, hardware integration, installation, and training phases of several military and commercial programs.
As manager of the documentation team: I planned, assigned, reviewed, and edited all documentation, drawings, and training content.
I developed documentation budgets, schedules, style guides, and document management plans.
I met strict deadlines for document delivery and fulfilled contract requirements on multi-year projects.
Website design highlights
I enhanced employee productivity by designing and deploying a corporate Intranet built in SharePoint Online for an IT infrastructure company. I created a graphically rich user interface (UI) / user experience (UX), including layout and navigation.
I developed and taught critical video training sessions to get department heads and content managers quickly onboard and using SharePoint to update their new departmental websites.
Software skills
SharePoint Online and SharePoint Server 2013 for comprehensive document management as SharePoint designer and site administrator.
ServiceNow and MadCap Flare for IT knowledge base creation and management.
HTML5, CSS, and WordPress for writing and styling content and front-end website design.
Adobe Technical Communication Suite (Acrobat, FrameMaker, RoboHelp, Captivate) for long manuals, online help, and multimedia training.
Adobe Creative Suite (InDesign) for page layout.
SnagIt, Camtasia, Photoshop, and Illustrator for screen capture and image editing (crop, resize, and retouch).
Visio for technical drawings such as flowcharts and diagrams.
Windows 10, Microsoft Office 365 (Word, PowerPoint, Excel).
