Is there value in having technical authors in a software team?

Posted by Desolate Planet on Programmers See other posts from Programmers or by Desolate Planet
Published on 2011-03-02T00:22:07Z Indexed on 2011/03/02 7:32 UTC
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During my 5 years in IT as a software developer, I've noticed that developers have a strong distaste towards doing any documentation. The act of taking screenshots and creating documentation seems to be a painful and time consuming experience. In one company I worked for, we had a technical documentation team with two technical authors and they developed all the user guides for our customers. In other companies where I've suggested hiring a technical author, I've been told they are not worth the money, but I'm a little unsure if that rings true. Is it better to have developers stop coding and take half a day to do screenshots and create the various guides or is it worth hiring someone who handles such tasks?

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