Education

Carnegie Mellon: BA, Professional Writing; 1.5 yrs Computer Science curriculum (electives)

Experience

7/01- 2003

Technical Writer — Contractor for bay area software companies. Projects spaned multiple audiences including installation manuals, SDKs/APIs for developers, and non-technical business users.

Ariba, Inc, Mountain View, CA

5/01-7/01

Software Quality Engineer — Ariba Commerce Services Network product

ACSN is the hub through which all buyers and sellers transact, and is used in all of Ariba's product lines. Worked with engineers and product managers to evaluate new features. Wrote test plans from PRDs and ERDs (product and engineering requirements documents.) Tested supplier enablement features. Due to technical writing background, owned the SQE intranet.

1/00-5/01

Technical Writer — Ariba Marketplace, Network Edition product

AM-NE allows companies to create "branded" marketplaces embeded within their own websites, and offers a quick ROI due to a hosted architecture. AM-NE was a "startup within a big company," with five engineers and releases every four to six weeks. First technical writer, starting with the 1.1 version. High degree of autonomy. Determined the manual set, on-line help structure, and documentation priorities. Worked with Globalization team to get documentation translated into seven languages. Assisted with and evangelized usability testing. Wrote manuals on XML-based credential passing, JavaScript and CSS branding, and our network topology. Created help systems for adminstrators, buyers, suppliers, and unsophesticated users. Interviewed and mentored a college intern, resulting in her full-time hire.

4/98-1/00

Technical Writer — Ariba Buyer (was ORMS) product

Ariba Buyer enables companies to buy (or sell) goods and services over the intranet while integrating with ERP backends (SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft, etc.) Worked on nearly all aspects of the documentation: JavaDoc, API documentation, tools for system administrators, on-line help, configuration documentation, the Travel and Expenses module, and eForms (custom applications using Ariba's workflow.) Upon my transfer, four new writers took on the manuals I had been responsible for.

Z-AXIS, Limited, San Mateo, CA

3/97-4/98

Technical Writer

Responsible for all documentation as Z-AXIS' first technical writer. Prioritized internal documentation needs. Wrote API manuals from C source code; reported bugs as appropriate. Created process and software tool documentation, including use of motion capture hardware. Produced paper, HTML, and PDF from single-source FrameMaker files.

Visix Software, Incorporated, Reston, VA

3/95-3/97

Technical Writer

Team leader responsible for context-sensitive on-line help for Vibe, a Java IDE. Required extensive original writing. Designed tutorial format. Co-authored five manuals in four weeks for dbSpectrum, a SQL-based database product. Edited release notes, tutorials, programmer's guides, and a vast API reference set for release with Galaxy, a cross-platform C and C++ development environment.

Computer Skills

Publishing:

FrameMaker, Word, Acrobat, PageMaker, Emacs, LaTeX, Scribe

Web/On-line Help Tools:

DreamWeaver, BBEdit, WebWorks, Fusion, RoboHelp

Graphics:

Photoshop, Fireworks, Illustrator, Fractal Painter, PowerPoint

Source control & testing:

Perforce, RCS; Test Director, WinRunner, Vantive

Operating Systems:

Windows, Unix/X11, Macintosh, OS/2, VMS

Networking/File Systems:

AFS, NFS, Novell Netware, AppleTalk, TCP/IP

Languages:

HTML, C, C++, Java, JavaScript, Scheme (LISP variant)