In November 2015, the Society for Technical Communication hosted its annual regional competitions. The CA PPM Engineering Services DocOps Team recently received official judicial assessments and feedback for their nomination recognized by the New York Metro, Philadelphia Metro, and Houston chapters of the STC. "We received many high-quality entries," the Awards Manager announced, "and are impressed with the caliber of work that was presented. It is our pleasure to inform you that your entry CA PPM Smart Online Help received an Award of Excellence."
About the CA PPM DocOps Online Help
CA PPM Release 14.3 introduced customers to a new "Smart" Online Help model linking application pages to the new CA PPM documentation at docops.ca.com. When a user logs into their CA PPM application and clicks Help, we capture the following customer details:
- Environment: CA PPM On-Premise or SaaS
- Release: For example, 14.3, 14.4, 15.1
- UI Language: The current CA PPM language setting as configured by the user.
- Page ID: The current page the user is viewing when they click Help.
The Engineering Services team assigns a unique HID code to each DocOps page that has been designated as an appropriate destination for a user in need of assistance. A properties file stores a list of application page IDs and their matching docops HID values. Using a REST API construct, the user is routed to the correct docops space, page, and language. The new online help offers improved navigation, search, convenient videos, and links to other content. Users can comment on the documentation directly.
About the CA PPM DocOps Team
The design, editing, and technical development of content on the docops platform (as seen at docops.ca.com in a web browser or mobile device) is shared by the following international team:
Former team member Emeritus Rosy Sunder rossu02 and Esther Jayakar are also acknowledged for their contributions. The entry form credits the talent of Principal Software Engineer ansju01 (Junaid Ansari) for the REST API development that links users from their CA PPM software to the matching Online Help documentation page.
The worldclass CA PPM product management team of Denice_Brown, NamitaMish, and Bill Yee championed the winning new design. Assisting in the implementation details were Pavel Skopik, Alisa Conboy, Ruth Kusterer, Bob Kennedy, Giri Buggarapu, and James Bauman.
About the STC
STC is the world's largest and oldest professional association dedicated to the advancement of the field of technical communication. The origin of technical communication has been attributed to various eras: Ancient Greece, the Renaissance, and the mid-twentieth century. However, the professional field was firmly established during the World War I, as the demand for technology-based documentation in the military, manufacturing, electronics, and aerospace industries expanded. Society members span many fields of the technical communication profession and reach across every industry and continent. In fact, the Society has members in almost 50 countries and is continuing to grow rapidly outside of North America and Europe.
Through a growing global community, the Society and its members set the global standards for technical communication. The Society’s award-winning publications, Intercom and Technical Communication, are widely read in the field of technical communication, and its annual conference is one of the most-attended technical events of the year.
The Society, its geographic Chapters, and its Special Interest Groups (SIGs) host a wide array of educational events designed to advance the knowledge of members and promote technical communication education globally. STC educational events regularly feature the thought leaders and practitioners who represent the future of the profession.