 |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
 |
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
 |
Tamara Ferris Tamara Ferris, an effervescent programmer, stumbled by chance into a career in technical communications. What began as an incidental foray into untested waters has over the last six years become the career of choice for Tamara. Tamara holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management and is currently completing a post-graduate degree in Information Technology. She has completed a few courses in programming and is a Microsoft Certified Professional in VB. In 1996, Tamara started career as a programmer and over the years she has donned multiple roles such as tester, user-interface designer, language editor, content creator, in-house news magazine editor, author for technical manuals and user documentation, and a writer for error text messages. She has designed a variety of user and reference documents, including API manuals and architectural tutorials. She loves creating templates and involves herself in standard-setting initiatives. Tamara has worked with Siemens Information Systems Limited (SISL) as a Senior Technical Writer for the last 3 years. She has both individual contributor and lead writer responsibilities. She handles user documentation for a cardiology healthcare product that requires effective planning, scheduling, researching, and writing. Tamara believes that “the output of a product often lies in strength of processes and diligent tracking and scheduling, all based on effective resource allocation”. Tamara finds technical communication challenging as she can apply learning from different domains such as writing and communication analysis, reading patterns, cognitive science, user interface design, usability engineering, and information modelling. The challenge lies in being the first learner of a product and in translating that learning into simple, lucid language that shows an absolute beginner how to use the product effectively. Tamara has used this understanding to develop expertise is creating online user assistance, especially online help and online reference guides for software applications. She believes “to write a user manual, one needs to think like the people using the program and try to tell them what they need to know, rather than what the author would need to know or what the programmers would need to know.” Tamara’s key challenges at work stem from the residual perception in some circles that documentation involves patch-work tasking that can be done at the end of a project. On a day-to-day basis, Tamara handles coordination issues with software developers to track changes in the software. Her role demands her to work independently on multiple releases and track the progress of each release. Tamara feels that of late documentation is being more integrated with software release planning and is getting due light from the start of project. This trend makes her happy and more productive. In her free time, Tamara loves making things out of waste, or pictures with pressed flowers, painting on pottery and ceramic tiles. Tamara loves sketching and needlework. When she just wants to relax she plays with her pet dog. Whenever she can, Tamara goes for morning jogs, yoga, or swimming, or just ends up playing a short game of badminton. You can contact Tamara at tamara.ferris@siemens.com.
STC India | Home | Contact Us Copyright © 2004 India Chapter STC. All rights reserved.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
MEMBER
PROFILES
