Scott R. Cooley

20+ years of rewarding experience in effectively providing software users with high-quality, helpful how-to information that is always accurate and easily consumable.

Summary of qualifications

Technical writing and web accessibility professional specializing in software documentation development, project management, and team leadership with proven track record of high contribution to results in complex and challenging environments. Equally satisfied with working as either a Technical Writer, Technical Editor, Help Author, Instructional Designer, Software Trainer; or as a Manager of information development projects and of teams of technical communications professionals.

Proven Record of Excellent Employee Evaluations
Strong Ability to Learn New Technologies Quickly
Outstanding Instruction & Public Presentation Skills
News writing, PR, Marketing & Desktop Publishing Experience
Instructional Design, Instructor-Led Training Delivery & Tutorial Video Production Experience

Extensive Project Management Experience in Software Documentation & Training Development
Enterprise Business Policy, Process & Procedure Authoring Experience
Business Proposal & RFP Writing & Editing Experience
Business Analysis, Functional & Technical Specifications Experience
Software QA Testing & Help Desk Team Leadership Experience

Technical Writing, Editing, & Publishing Expertise
Structured Authoring (XML, HTML, CSS), Information Architecture & Content Management Experience
Single-Source, Multi-Output Online Help Development & Publishing Expertise
Software Documentation, Web & Document Accessibility Standards Expertise
Wiki Design & Administration Experience (Confluence & SharePoint)

Clients

Microsoft Corporation, Oracle Corporation, General Motors Corporation, Deque Systems, Deque University, Michigan State University, Kuali Foundation, Oakland University, HTC Global Services, Ford Motor Company, Vail Resorts, State Of Michigan, World Wide Web Consortium

Work experience

Feb. ’24 – present Technical Writer

TCS (Wintrust contract) Chicago, IL (remote)

Authoring and editing of technical documentation for Wintrust bank of Chicago as a contingent worker with Tata Consultancy Services. As a member of the IT Data Management team, and reporting to Program Management, I have successfully conducted a standards documentation gap analysis, written internal Standards documentation for Continuous Integration and Deployment (CI/CD) Pipeline and Code Repository for developers. Additionally, I have written extensive standards and procedural documentation for a Self-Service Model for a Business Analytics and Reporting platform and service, both for a functional business user audience and technical administrators. Past work also included the creation of complex and extensive data and process flow diagrams and executive meeting facilitation/presentations. Currently transitioning into a leadership role, while working on a specialized cross-functional project with responsibility for writing Playbooks and Runbooks for Acquisitions for the Data Management team. Tools used include Azure DevOps, PowerBI, PowerPoint, Visio, SharePoint, Collibra, and Workiva.

Oct. ’22 – Feb.'24 Technical Writer/Instructional Designer

Insight Global (Moody’s Analytics contract) Atlanta, GA (remote)

Lead a successful implementation of WalkMe in-app guidance, ReadMe API guides, user guides and e-learning tutorial videos as a consultant for client Moody’s Analytics for two of their software products – Relationship Pricing Analyzer and Captial Risk Analyzer, from strategic planning to solution building for a capital planning solution for financial institutions to project financial statements, capital ratios, and credit metrics based on a wide range of strategic and economic scenarios, and to allow banks to boost profitability and gain a competitive edge with a holistic view of their customer relationship value. Contributed to significant, measured improvements in the developer portal, user experience satisfaction, digital adoption, increased productivity and a reduction in onboarding time and customer support requests. Tools used include SwaggerHub, ReadMe, Postman, GitHub, Confluence, Jira, Service Now, Jenkins, Camtasia & WalkMe.

May ‘22 – Oct. ’22 API Documentation Specialist

Onshore Momentum (Federal Reserve Bank contract) Cleveland, OH (remote)

Leading the entire API and User Documentation development effort for the Transforming Tax Collections (T2C) project, a mission-critical digital revenue collection system in association with the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland for Treasury Services and in conjunction with the Internal Revenue Service which was considered a High-Value Asset (HVA) for the United States government, yet was a project that was ultimately canceled. In addition to developer documentation for 3rd party integrations, work also includes writing and editing user guides, help content, internal project functional business documentation, test scenarios, and system operations documentation. Tools used include Open API (Swagger), Postman, GitLab, Confluence, Jira, MS Teams and Office.

Feb. ‘21 – May ’22 Trust and Safety Content Analyst

Harvey Nash (LinkedIn contract) Detroit, MI (remote)

As a member of the Abuse and Content Enforcement (ACE) team and contingent workforce at LinkedIn, my work involved reviewing member content for policy violations in order to maintain a professional and safe platform. Processing and investigating terms of service, fraudulent and spam-related violations in a timely and precise manner. Defining and implementing operational solutions to emerging threats while driving improvements in the team's processes, technology and tools. Researching and resolving all issues related to spam, account takeover and terms of service violations. Interpretation and enforcement of content policies. Managing internal escalations received for fraud and all other disputes. Effectively identifying issues by performing research using tools.

October 2019 - May 2020

Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan

Web Compliance Coordinator

Served as the chief web accessibility compliance officer for the entire university while working within the Communications and Marketing department of the organization. Taught a course in Web and Document Accessibility for faculty and staff. Primary duties included Identification and remediation of web accessibility errors, training of faculty and staff in web accessibility techniques, closed captioning and transcription of videos, and performing extensive document remediation work. Secondary tasks included coordination of third-party accessibility services, digital television programming and billboard marquee marketing and advertising content publishing, and public speaking about the topic of web accessibility. Tools used included administration of the Siteimprove automated accessibility suite, the Axe accessibility extension, the Percussion content management system, and Adobe Creative Suite, in addition to coding and widget development work in HTML, CSS & Javascript.
July 2015 - September 2019

Deque Systems, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan

Documentation Specialist

Led a small team of technical writers, while additionally serving as an instructional designer at this small company (approx. 100 employees). Development of eLearning courses, user documentation, technical reference documentation, API documentation, developer guides, installation guides, system administration guides, online help, printable quick start guides, etc. for automated and manual accessibility testing software product suite, including Worldspace and Axe. Additional work has included authoring blog posts, assisting with proposals, design critiques, quality assurance testing, tutorial video production, custom remediation advice pages in Deque University accessibility curriculum. Content authored also appears in the open-source product Axe-core, which itself is a part of other open source products, such as Google's Lighthouse. Primary tools used included GitHub, Bitbucket, Docker, MODX CMS, Jira, Postman, Google Sites & Adobe Acrobat DC.
August 2004 - July 2015

Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan

Technical Writer

Official union title was Information Technologist II, level 13 for over eleven years, however, roles included End User Education Team Lead for the Kuali Coeus Research Administration project; Communications Manager & Knowledge Manager, Communications and Marketing Team, Office of the CIO, IT Services; Portfolio Manager, PMO Team, University Systems; Documentation Manager of the Kuali Coeus project, Kuali Foundation; Instructional Design Team Lead, Enterprise Business Systems Projects; Member Liaison, Kuali Foundation; Project Lead, User Documentation Development, Kuali Financial System project; and Technical Writer & Software Trainer, Administrative Information Services.
All involved technical writing of user, administrator and developer documentation and training materials for customized vendor enterprise and "homegrown" software systems. Primary tools used included Confluence, SharePoint, Cascade Server, Madcap Flare, Camtasia, Snagit, InDesign, Eclipse, JIRA, Sakai, Contour, RWD uPerform, Angel, Drupal, DocBook, Framemaker, DITA Open Toolkit, and Acrobat Professional.

Detailed Project & Role Descriptions @ MSU (click to expand below):

End User Education Team Lead (May 2015-July 2015), Kuali Coeus Research Administration Project, Vice President of Research and Graduate Studies– Responsible for information architecture, online help design, user documentation and e-learning development for implementation of MSU's customized version of the open source Kuali Coeus research administration system. Work deliverables include end user education strategy, documentation requirements, standards, templates, and prototypes; project plan with work breakdown structure; authoring, editing, recording, and publishing to integrated online help system and learning management system.
Communications Manager & Knowledge Manager, Communications and Marketing Team, Office of the CIO, IT Services (November 2014 -April 2015 ) – Serving as both a Communications Manager and Knowledge Manager, work includes using a content management system to design, develop and maintain service and unit information on various web sites, including itservices.msu.edu and tech.msu.edu; authoring and editing of online IT-related news for the unit; design, development, authoring, editing and publishing of Top 3 in IT, an internal departmental newsletter; and ongoing user documentation development project management for enterprise and client software systems and applications - including knowledgebase articles, user manuals, and in-application help; and serving as a technical writing student intern mentor. Primary tools – Confluence, SharePoint, Google Apps, Google Sites (for eNewsletter), Cascade Server CMS, SharePoint, Confluence, Madcap Doc-To-Help, Techsmith Camtasia, SnagIt, Adobe Dreamweaver.
Portfolio Manager, Portfolio Management Team, University Systems (January 2013 - November 2014) – Serving as both a Communications Manager and Technical Communicator, work included writing and editing both internal and external communications on behalf of the department Director within the IT Services unit; design, development, writing, photography and publishing of internal, online Newsletter; and ongoing user documentation development project management for university software systems. Portfolio management duties related to setup and ongoing maintenance of website content for tech.msu.edu, the IT Services website, internal departmental policy & procedure writing, Confluence wiki spaces for both University Systems and Portfolio Management team, annual reports, and service catalog. Member of the University Communicator Network. Primary tools – Google Apps, Google Sites (for eNewsletter), Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, Confluence Wiki, Survey Monkey.
Project Manager, Project Management Office (PMO), University Systems (March 2012 – January 2013) – Led projects that required the coordination of team managers and input by all department leaders, including the establishment of the business analyst team description and requirements templates, disaster recovery research and documentation, PMO project portfolio, online service catalog web site, skills inventory survey, system support information wiki pages, time tracking system research and planning, and team website content. Planned, designed, wrote, and developed a departmental space and page content in the Confluence wiki. Established an impressive, well-received online internal department newsletter, handling all aspects of the design, planning, implementation, authoring and publishing myself. Primary tools – Doc-To-Help (Component One), Word, SnagIt, Eclipse, Acrobat, Confluence, JIRA, Sakai, Contour, Google Apps for Education.
Documentation Manager, Kuali Coeus Project (May 2010 – February 2012) – Kuali Coeus Research Administration project, Kuali Foundation – user and technical system documentation development for the Kuali Coeus software project for higher education - a nationwide, community source project involving multiple institutions. In-App Help/Printed Documentation Authoring, Editing & Publishing, QA Testing, User Interface Design, Functional Council. Published Kuali Coeus 4.0 user documentation and online help for the Kuali Foundation, which included over 1,500 pages of material I personally authored myself. Also published a website, a series of wiki spaces/pages, and subversion repository that served as a project documentation library. Primary tools – Doc-To-Help (NetHelp), Word, SnagIt, Eclipse, Acrobat, Confluence, JIRA, Sakai, Contour, Google Docs/Sites.
Instructional Design Team Lead, Enterprise Business Systems Project (August 2009 – May 2010) – Planning and leadership work with team of instructional designers, training developers and trainers for web-based and instructor-led training courses on Kuali Financial System (KFS) in preparation for enterprise software system implementation at Michigan State University. The work involved establishment of training deliverable templates, a style guide, video and documentation standards, webinar development, web site design, business process procedure development, a policy tracking tool, training logistics planning, and training project planning. Primary tools – RWD uPerform, PowerPoint, SharePoint, Angel.
Member Liaison, Kuali Foundation (November 2008 – June 2009) – After I left this position, they renamed it Director of Communication and Collaboration. In this role, I handled community communications, outreach, coordination, public relations, licensing management, collaboration group and email list management, social network establishment and maintenance, kuali.org web content authoring, announcements, system administration, security access facilitation, marketing materials; writing and publishing of the Weekly Wok Blog, community meeting calendar establishment, meeting facilitation, wiki editing, policy & procedure establishment, and miscellaneous online documentation work, as the first-ever individual to fill this role under a unique Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) while remaining employed with MSU. Primary tools – Drupal, Confluence, Adobe Contribute, JIRA, Sakai, Photoshop, and Dreamweaver.
Project Lead, User Documentation Development, Kuali Financial System Project (July 2006 – November 2008) - Kuali Financial System project – leader of virtual, geographically-dispersed team of writers and editors at multiple higher education institutions and commercial affiliate firms to produce user documentation and online help for KFS software. Coordinated a Documentation Subcommittee consisting of representatives from multiple higher ed institutions, as well as leading a documentation development team of authors and editors. Established a style guide, documentation standards and procedures, requirements and strategy. Primary tools – Confluence, Word, SnagIt, Doc-To-Help, Acrobat.
Technical Writer & Software Trainer, Administrative Information Services (October 2004 – July 2006) – Hired by MSU, who created a position for me based on prior work as a technical writing consultant. Created user guides, quick reference guides, brochures, and online help for a variety of software application systems, in addition to training developers. Primary tools – Word, Framemaker, DocBook/OpenOffice.

See also my MSU-specific ePortfolio here for older, detailed project accomplishments: https://msu.edu/~cooleys2/

December 2003 - July 2004

HTC Global Services, Inc., Troy, Michigan (Michigan State University contract)

Technical Writing Consultant, Proposal Manager

Contracted consultant within the Administrative Information Services (AIS) Department at MSU, when not acting as a Proposal Manager while "on the bench" between client projects. Management of all phases of a multi-platform software documentation project (Forms Tracking Utility application for Michigan State University), from design to build to implementation and training. Development and maintenance of Documentation Requirements and Strategy, Documentation Standards and Procedures, Project Glossary, Document Environment, User Guides, User Reference Manuals, Technical Reference Manuals, System Management Guides, Document Templates, Procedures, Navigation Instructions, Online Help, Marketing Brochures, Education Overview and Training Documents with output in HTML, XML, Word, Open Office and Adobe PDF.

March 2002 - November 2003

Synova, Inc., Troy, Michigan (Ford Motor Company contract)

Technical Writer, Master Trainer

Winner of Outstanding Service and Quality Award.-Nov.’02, and Outstanding Contributor award for Metrics Repository System, Feb.’03; Master Trainer (Instructional Designer / Training Administrator) for the eVEREST software development project for Ford Motor Company in Livonia. Train-the-trainer, technical editing & writing using Oracle Method (AIM), Oracle Tutor Author, Oracle Tutor Publisher, Oracle Courseware applications for web-based creation, publication and delivery of Student Guides, Instructor Guides, Quick Reference Guides, Desk Manuals, Online Help and E-Learning courses. Led QA Testing Team, wrote test scripts using Mercury Test Director.
June 2000 - February 2002

Oracle Corporation, Okemos, Michigan (State of Michigan contract)

Technical Writer, Web Publishing Developer

Oracle Service Industries, State & Local Consulting, Midwest Region. Chosen to join Oracle from sub-contract ranks for project with the State of Michigan. Increased responsibility in Business Analyst role after six months, in addition to technical editing & writing. Duties included development & maintenance of an intranet web site with database functionality for a software development project involving the integration of client’s systems. Participated in "roundtable" meetings with functional experts to capture business requirements, wrote pseudo-code, and served as documentation standards subject matter expert and project librarian.
January 1999 - June 2000

IPG Services Corp., Milford, Michigan (General Motors Corporation contract)

Electronic Information Author & Editor

"Hand-picked" from previous job (see TPI job below) for work on an electronic service information project, where I developed & implemented GM's innovative Controlled Automotive Service Language (CASL) English standards for translation to foreign languages; developed Document Type Definition (DTD) templates for increased software efficiency; configured & maintained project-specific enterprise software including Exceed, ftp, Arbortext & all Microsoft office products; trained new employees; gave presentations; administered databases; performed hardware & software troubleshooting & help desk support.
November 1997 - January 1999

TPI Technologies, Inc., Warren, Michigan (General Motors Corporation contract)

Technical Writer, Software Trainer

Designed technical training programs & served as an instructor for custom database authoring & editing software for electronic service information for www site, CDROM & paper manuals that included text, links, graphics, electrical schematics, thumbnails, hotspots, & diagnostic tables. Responsible for training & orientation of new employees. Relied upon for "superuser" database status, expertise in Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) & development of "user friendly" preparation standards & guidelines.

Volunteer work

September 2018 - March 2019

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

Project Silver Task Force, Accessibility Guidelines Working Group, Participant as Technical Writer, Documentation Standards and Document Accessibility Consultant
https://www.w3.org/groups/wg/ag/former-participants

Education

January 1997 - December 1997

Thomas M. Cooley School of Law

I attended for three consecutive terms the former law school in Lansing, MI later known as Western Michigan University Cooley Law School, where I also worked at the circulation desk in the law library. Although not related to its namesake, the school used my name and profile without my consent in their marketing materials. At the time, it was a for-profit, private law school that had a reputation for deceptive statistic reporting, a liberal acceptance policy, and a strict graduation policy for the purpose of boasting a high bar passage rate and exploiting students for tuition. I left volunarily in good standing after deciding that both studying and practicing law were not for me. I proudly paid off in full a massive amount of useless student loan debt about a decade later, which was a learning experience that taught me great resilience.

September 1985 - May 1989

Albion College

Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in English, May, 1989. Journalism Concentration; State of Michigan Competitive Scholarship Winner; Goodrich Club (Independent Cooperative Fraternity) President; Tennis Team, Sailing Team - winner of coveted Hope Regatta wooden shoe trophy; Ski Club; Staff Writer for The Pleiad, Albion College Newspaper and Special Contributor to Michigan daily newspaper The Albion Recorder. Faculty Advisor - Emeritus Professor of English Charles Crupi. Coursework included newswriting, journalism, and advanced expository writing.
See the Certifications page for additional post-degree technical and professional development credentials.

Albion College is an undergraduate, liberal arts institution located in Albion, Michigan that continually appears atop the college rankings, and is committed to academic excellence and preparing students to translate critical thought into action. Contributing to a legacy of mulitple close relatives who also graduated from Albion, getting this degree is one of the greatest and most meaningful accomplishments of my life.

See the Certifications page for additional post-degree technical and professional development credentials.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse