Practical models for technical communication - Shannon Kelley 2021
The problem-solution framework
Technical communication fundamentals
In an ideal world, technical communicators wouldn’t be necessary. Instead, everyone would work through their daily tasks without encountering problems. That ideal world doesn’t exist, unfortunately. Individuals often encounter obstacles—complex technical problems—that prevent them from completing tasks. Most users need outside help to move beyond these obstacles.
This is where a technical communicator comes in. Technical communicators can use the Problem-Solution Framework to develop a solution in the form of a technical document. When technical communicators consider purpose and audience, they craft a solution in the form of a message (figure 1.2).
The Problem-Solution Framework is explored in more detail in chapters 10 and 11.
Figure 1.2. The Problem-Solution Framework. This conceptual framework allows the technical communicator to think through a task, including its purpose, audience, and message, before creating a technical document.
Purpose
Your purpose in any technical document is to guide the user to a successful solution. Purpose is the reason for the document’s existence and guides all the choices involved in the document’s completion. All components of a document need to relate back to the purpose.
Audience
The intended users of the document make up the audience. The way you communicate will vary from one document to the next because of differences in audience. You don’t guide a professional coder in the same way you do a first-time computer user, for example.
The audience for most technical documents includes a decision-maker. What you communicate—the language and visuals of a document—forms the message.
Message
The document’s message results from your consideration of the document’s purpose and audience. Within this message, you would usually include a call to action for the decision-maker, which could be as simple as “please review and respond by noon tomorrow” or as involved as “this report recommends the replacement of all office chairs with ergonomic models to prevent employee injury.” There may be more than one audience for some documents you produce. We refer to those as primary and secondary audiences.
The Framework in Context
One simple way to visualize the Problem-Solution Framework is to think of a three-part approach. The three streams of purpose, audience, and message flow into the solution (figure 1.3).
Figure 1.3. The Problem-Solution Framework: Another View. This three-part approach is another way to think about the Problem-Solution Framework. The document’s purpose, audience, and message all work together to create the solution.
Here is another way to think about it. Suppose you need additional storage for your room. You buy a bookshelf from a furniture distributor that sells inexpensive products that customers assemble themselves. If you’ve ever tried to put together a table, shelf, or bed frame on your own with just the instructions, you know how vulnerable you are. You are at the mercy of the technical communicator.
Let’s hope the team that created the instructions kept the Problem-Solution Framework in mind. They know your purpose—to assemble the much-needed shelf. They know about you, the audience—an intelligent but otherwise average person who is not a builder of furniture or even the least bit handy. They know that the instructions (the message) must be simple, clear, and detailed enough to take you step by step through building a shelf that will sit level and hold your collection of vintage records.
You’ll encounter the Problem-Solution Framework in future chapters. For now, familiarize yourself with how a technical communicator moves a user from problem to solution.