Technical Writer

Summary

A technical writer is an expert practitioner with a deep understanding of technology and the needs of technologists. At this role level, you will:

take a user-centred approach to explaining how to use government products and services to a technical audience, focusing on specialist content and software documentation

write blog posts for or on behalf of the technical community

engage with and contribute to the cross-government technical writing and content design communities

Work Activity Components

Title	Details
Risk management (Level 4) (Content authoring)	Understands the implications of publishing content and manages the associated risks.
Content production (Level 4)	Creates and evaluates complex, well-engineered deliverables, ensuring alignment with the agreed requirements, making optimal use of the chosen medium(s). Reviews work of other content designers and authors for consistency and accuracy, and takes responsibility for ensuring appropriate publication according to deadlines.
Content development (Level 4)	Designs the content and appearance of complex information deliverables (for example, collections of artefacts, which maybe spread across multiple mediums) in collaboration with clients and/or representatives of the intended audience(s).

Behavioural Skills

Title	Details
Creativity	Taking innovative approaches to problem solving and/or devising inventive and creative solutions.
Attention to Detail	Applying specific quality standards to all tasks undertaken to ensure that deliverables are accurate and complete.
Interacting with People	Establishing relationships, contributing to an open culture and maintaining contacts with people from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines. Effective, approachable and sensitive communicator in different communities and cultures. Ability to adapt style and approach to meet the needs of different audiences.
Teamwork	Working collaboratively with others to achieve a common goal.

Training

Title	Details
Technical Writing	Methods, techniques and tools used in the production of technical publications.
Security Awareness	Tools and techniques to help users and employees understand the role they play in helping to combat information security breaches and for IT and security professionals to prevent and mitigate risk.
Graphic Design and Web Development	Tools and techniques for graphic design, user interface design (UI design), content authoring using standardised code and proprietary software, user experience design (UX design), web development and search engine optimisation.

Professional Development Activity (PDA)

Title	Details	PDA Group
Deputising	Standing in for supervisor or manager on a temporary basis during periods of absence.	Broadening Activities
Job Shadowing and Special Assignments	Undertaking temporary periods or secondments in other roles, particularly those that offer a new perspective on own function or exposure to other environments and cultures.	Broadening Activities
Research Assignments	Exploring a topic which is not part of own normal responsibilities and presenting findings to colleagues and/or management	Increasing Knowledge
Gaining Knowledge of Activities of Employing Organisation	Developing an understanding of the potentially diverse range of activities (service, governance, administrative, regulatory, commercial, charitable, industrial, etc.) undertaken by the employing organisation.	Increasing Knowledge
Gaining Knowledge of IT Concepts and Techniques	Undertaking study, learning and, where possible, practice in IT concepts and techniques external to own function.	Increasing Knowledge
Participation in Professional Body Affairs	Taking an active part in professional body affairs at branch, specialist group, committee or board level.	Participation in Professional Activities
Negotiating and Influencing	Undertaking learning and practice of negotiating with and influencing others.	Developing Professional Skills

Qualification Components

Title	Awarding Bodies
FEDIP Senior Practitioner	The Federation for Informatics Professionals
MISTC - Member of the Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators	Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators

Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework Skills

Skill	Level
Agile working Agile delivery involves encouraging teams to build incrementally, test and iterate their work based on regular feedback and other useful data.	Practitioner Agile working You can: identify and compare the best processes or delivery methods to use, including measuring and evaluating outcomes help the team to decide the best approach help teams to manage and visualise outcomes, prioritise work and adhere to agreed minimum viable product (MVP), priorities and scope
Prototyping Prototyping a service or product involves exploring, testing and sharing different concepts before committing to the final design.	Working Prototyping You can: understand when to use a specific prototyping technique or method show the value of prototyping to your team
Stakeholder relationship management Stakeholder relationship management involves managing stakeholder requirements and communications throughout a project, while remaining focused on the user needs.	Practitioner Stakeholder relationship management You can: influence stakeholders and manage relationships effectively build long-term strategic relationships and communicate clearly and regularly with stakeholders
Strategic thinking Strategy involves creating a plan to achieve a team or organisation's objectives.	Expert Strategic thinking You can: lead the design and implementation of strategy, directing the evaluation of strategies and policies to ensure business requirements are being met
Technical understanding (user-centred design) Performance measurement involves collecting and interpreting data to identify how a team, product or service is performing.	Practitioner Technical understanding (user-centred design) You can: demonstrate knowledge of the technologies used to build and operate digital services collaborate closely with colleagues in different digital disciplines
User focus User focus involves understanding the user needs to develop a detailed understanding of the problems that need to be solved.	Expert User focus You can: give direction on which tools or methods to use demonstrate experience in meeting the needs of users across a variety of channels bring insight and expertise in how user needs have changed over time to ensure they're met by the business apply strategic thinking to provide the best service for the end user
User-centred content design	Practitioner User-centred content design You can: show a deep understanding of end-to-end journeys and how content is affected within these journeys identify where journey fixes or content improvements need to be made take responsibility for assuring the quality of content from more junior colleagues, and coaching and guiding them to improve ensure that content is regularly reviewed and evaluated, contributing to continuous improvements and iteration encourage a continuous improvement mindset in teams and more junior content colleagues deliver through others, and direct and critique their work

Skill

Level

Agile working

Agile delivery involves encouraging teams to build incrementally, test and iterate their work based on regular feedback and other useful data.

Practitioner Agile working

You can: identify and compare the best processes or delivery methods to use, including measuring and evaluating outcomes help the team to decide the best approach help teams to manage and visualise outcomes, prioritise work and adhere to agreed minimum viable product (MVP), priorities and scope

Prototyping

Prototyping a service or product involves exploring, testing and sharing different concepts before committing to the final design.

Working Prototyping

You can: understand when to use a specific prototyping technique or method show the value of prototyping to your team

Stakeholder relationship management

Stakeholder relationship management involves managing stakeholder requirements and communications throughout a project, while remaining focused on the user needs.

Practitioner Stakeholder relationship management

You can:

influence stakeholders and manage relationships effectively
build long-term strategic relationships and communicate clearly and regularly with stakeholders

Strategic thinking

Strategy involves creating a plan to achieve a team or organisation's objectives.

Expert Strategic thinking

You can: lead the design and implementation of strategy, directing the evaluation of strategies and policies to ensure business requirements are being met

Technical understanding (user-centred design)

Performance measurement involves collecting and interpreting data to identify how a team, product or service is performing.

Practitioner Technical understanding (user-centred design)

You can: demonstrate knowledge of the technologies used to build and operate digital services collaborate closely with colleagues in different digital disciplines

User focus

User focus involves understanding the user needs to develop a detailed understanding of the problems that need to be solved.

Expert User focus

You can: give direction on which tools or methods to use demonstrate experience in meeting the needs of users across a variety of channels bring insight and expertise in how user needs have changed over time to ensure they're met by the business apply strategic thinking to provide the best service for the end user

User-centred content design

Practitioner User-centred content design

You can: show a deep understanding of end-to-end journeys and how content is affected within these journeys identify where journey fixes or content improvements need to be made take responsibility for assuring the quality of content from more junior colleagues, and coaching and guiding them to improve ensure that content is regularly reviewed and evaluated, contributing to continuous improvements and iteration encourage a continuous improvement mindset in teams and more junior content colleagues deliver through others, and direct and critique their work

The Professional Body Responsible for this job family is BCS. This job role profile was created in collaboration with BCS, using Role Model Plus.