Andy Kass
302 Makani Road
Kapa'a, HI 96746
Home Office: 808-822-7392
SUMMARY
Technical Writer with the outlook of an engineer. Recent experience documenting APIs with code examples, administration of enterprise software, and monitoring applications for very technical users. Expertise includes GUI usability testing, version management and product builds, shell scripting, website authoring, blogging, and wiki authoring. Proven remote team member who knows how to make telecommuting transparent and productive.
TECHNICAL SKILLS
| Writing: |
SGML, XML, HTML/CSS, MediaWiki |
| Editing: |
Epic, FrameMaker, Open Office, emacs, Photoshop, Visio |
| Coding: |
Java, C/C++, Perl, ksh, PHP |
| Platforms: |
Solaris, Linux, Windows, Mac |
KEY STRENGTHS
- Demonstrates engineering vision for documentation and understands technical aspects of the product.
- Programs code examples to illustrate APIs and writes scripts to automate documentation tasks.
- Provides expert usability and deployment feedback to developers, logging and tracking potential bugs, and clarifying the choices that technical users face.
- Understands software builds, including version management tools for code and documentation files.
- Experience with new documentation platforms such as wikis and blogs, including social aspects.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
SUN MICROSYSTEMS, France, CA, and HI-Based
1998 - 2007
Technical Writer
- Documented a new monitoring application developed by a team in Europe. Nurtured a close working relationship with engineers across a 12-hour time difference. Tested GUI prototypes for usability and gave feedback that engineers used to improve the product. Wrote online help and GUI strings file.
- Analyzed metrics of online documents, allowing management to restructure documentation and redeploy resources to account for readership trends. Helped recommend a wiki for open source documentation.
- Rewrote an engineer's "cookbook" into customer documentation as an experiment in content reuse.
- Assisted writing team in transition from FrameMaker to SGML authoring, reducing workload of the tools support team. Wrote Perl scripts to automate certain conversions and maintained the preface template inserted in every manual published by the department.
- Documented a set of LDAP utilities without engineering input by using personal expertise. Created test cases, documented sample usage, even debugged the code.
- Entirely rewrote outdated administration manual for the directory server product. Praised by engineers and readers, it was at the time the second-most read document on docs.sun.com. Wrote the online help and automated the generation of help files in the build.
- Supervised a junior writer and collaborated to write a set of 3 documents delivered on time.
- Contributed to Java extensions by writing the specification for one of the first Java Community Process projects, a predecessor to open source. Participated in industry-wide meetings and twice worked booth duty at JavaOne.
SEMA GROUP, Grenoble, France
1997 - 1998
Programmer
Programmed graphical user interfaces in Ada for the civilian nuclear industry. Applied coding standards and conformed to complex specifications while meeting firm deadlines.
EDUCATION
MS, Software Engineering, ENSIMAG (French Computer Science Institute), Grenoble, France
BS, Computer Science, Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA
WRITING SAMPLES
Publications, including illustrations:
Online presence:
FOREIGN LANGUAGE SKILLS
Fluent in written and spoken French, indistinguishable from a native speaker. Expertise in technical documentation in French and translation to and from English.