STE

Could Simplified Technical English Work For You?

Can Simplified Technical English (STE) be a good choice for certain applications or for process improvement initiatives? Could STE work for your group or application? Could it help you improve information delivery or other issues? What process can you use to determine if STE could work for you?

If you are looking to improve information delivery processes and considering the use of STE, consider moving as we did in evaluating solutions to help improve our processes and more quickly distribute product update information in a number of languages, considering in the process the use of STE.

Getting Information Out Quickly

Distributing important product update information in a number of languages and many locations quickly with improved readability may be an issue in your organization. It was the issue that our team addressed. While your organization may not use the type of Six Sigma team approach that we did, you could still benefit by using a team or similar approach to looking to address similar issues. Our team took the approach of improving a business process using Six Sigma techniques, with a similar approach or adaptation being something that could work for you.

Your team may know or be aware, as we were, that our upper management considers updating our customers throughout the world with the correct information in a timely manner important to business.

Our team originated from our corporate quality organization and had the goal of moving quickly toward a resolution and improved process, within 90 days. The composition of the team could consist, as was similar in our case, to the following:

. a product integrity manager chair

. frequent authors of product safety advisory documents, for example, a product marketing manager and technical writer

. individuals responsible for resolving customer issues associated with product safety advisories in the field

. a product liability attorney if, as in our case, you are dealing with product safety information

. individuals who can provide research support, as in our case, an intern

What is the Six Sigma team approach and what is Six Sigma? Six Sigma is a business management strategy that involves identifying and removing the causes of defects and errors in manufacturing and business processes. It uses quality management methods and statistical tools. It also creates a group of people such as Six Sigma Black Belts who become experts in Six Sigma methods and processes. A Six Sigma project follows a set of steps and has quantified financial targets such as cost reduction or profit increase.

Historically, in Six Sigma, defect is defined as anything that could lead to customer dissatisfaction. Many Fortune 500 organizations have used Six Sigma programs in the last dozen or so years to assure customer satisfaction. If you do not have such a program at your company, you could adapt the principals easily if you think it could work for your group.
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SIDEBAR?
Could STE Help Your Process?

Based on research done by our quality group, working with technical communication representation, you could determine that STE would help with your process. Based on our research, our quality representative contacted several STE vendors to see if they could work with us to develop a process that would be more effective than our current process.

Our group met with various STE vendors and evaluated their products and services. We also submitted numbers on costs to management. The case would slowly build toward accepting STE as a way to address our issue.

What more specifically is STE and how could it help? Wikipedia explains with an entry that calls STE a language originally developed by the aerospace industry, using a limited subset of English that proponents claim will:

. Reduce ambiguity
. Help make foreign language translation more cost effective
. Facilitate computer-assisted and machine translation

When you use STE, words can be used in certain ways only. For example, you can use the word close in the phrase close the door. You cannot use the word in the phrase do not go close to the landing gear.

Our team research identified STE as a tool that could help us make the foreign language translation process more effective and shorter to achieve the goal of delivering the information products in a more timely way.
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What Kind of Process Can You Use?

Following a predetermined set of steps, as for example, those used by Black Belt teams, can help. Adhering to quantified targets as is customary for these types of teams can also be helpful. Steps you could use include:

1. Define the scope of the project and begin analysis

A focus that can be valuable during early efforts is to be sure the team has an understanding of the baseline metrics and what problem(s) you are working to solve. Our project charter defined these.

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What is SIPOC?
SIDEBAR?
One of the Six Sigma tools used to perform analysis is SIPOC, an acronym that stands for Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Outputs, Customers. An example from Wikipedia is:

Suppliers - grocers and vendors
Inputs - ingredients for recipes
Process - cooking at a restaurant kitchen
Outputs - meals served at a restaurant
Customers - diners at a restaurant

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Careful analysis of the problems and issues associated with each step in our processes can include the request for information, gathering inputs, generating drafts, working with authors and reviewers, reviewing, approving, translating, and delivery to the end-user customer.

The particular update information we looked at often involved safety-related information. The current process also involved many authors and reviewers. The current process did not always achieve a uniform end product. Some of the end products were created by tech writers and some not. This lack of uniformity created an uneven result for the end reader. Our team learned that some readers were not able in some cases to quickly understand action items after looking at their documents. In addition, the information was getting to readers longer than the team determined was optimum.

2. Discuss solutions and quantify

Your team can at this point discuss techniques that could be uniformly applied to documents to make them quicker and easier to translate as well as easier for readers to understand. In addition to a STE program, we identified two items that all authors should do -

. Use active voice if possible.
. Keep sentence length at fewer than 15 words per sentence.

Team members in our case understood that these techniques would be a start at a "clear language" effort. Our process, however, required a qualitative analysis of this. Our team decided that a before and after analysis could provide the qualitative data we needed. We would take before documents and compare them to after documents. The after documents would be easier and quicker to translate and not be harder to understand.

We already had data for documents on Flesch-Kincaid reading levels that were very high, well above our tech communication goal of 8th grade. We reworked four problemmatic and representative documents to make them more readable using the Flesch-Kincaid model, available through Microsoft Word.

Our testers confirmed with the before and after analysis, using a questionnaire to evaluate the before and after, that the after documents were not harder to read. These were part of the metrics we used to proceed.

3. Identify the solution and implement

Identifying a solution in our case involved going beyond a simple rework based on Flesch-Kinkaid scores. Our team looked at STE vendors and what they could offer and at what price.

We evaluated three vendors who offer software to assist with the clear language efforts. They also offered translation services to see the whole process through.

We also needed a control phase as part of our requirements. This phase validated that improved readability would reduce translation cycle time and cost. We also determined that a software tool would assist in the quest for an improved process.

We presented the proposal to management concerning the new process and pricing using STE. When the proposal was accepted, we pushed out the process with new documents, dovetailing with other initiatives. Our team leader created a map showing the new process.

What Kind of Ongoing Analysis Would be Helpful?

This type of Six Sigma project officially ends when data verifies a process/cost improvement.

Future and ongoing analysis should tell how effective a solution such as STE is for a group over a longer period. Based on current analysis, we are hopeful the results will meet our expectations and important information will get out to our global customers in a more effective and timely manner.

Perhaps a similar approach could work in your group.