The technical specialists are the ones who complete most of the tasks on the project. While an editor may spend 75% of his/her time assembling the deliverables and only 25% completing project tasks, the projects specialists spend close to 100% of their time directly on the project. These project tasks include talking to stakeholders to gather requirements data, processing the data so the team knows what is contained therein, and authoring requirements.
Each technical specialist receives assignments from the team lead (or the SCRUM Master operating under direction of the team lead). The technical specialist honors the workflow specified by the editors and strives to meet the quality requirements specified by the Q/As.
Area of Expertise
Technical specialists are usually assigned an area of expertise. It is the specialist's responsibility to become the project expert in this area, knowing more about it than anyone else on the team. These areas of expertise can be assigned by the team lead or by the PM. Most of the time, a given IC will keep an area of expertise throughout the project. However, the evolving needs of a project may require an IC to receive a new area of expertise assignment.
The exact assignments will vary according to the project details. Some technical specialists may find their area of expertise to be a variation of the following:
- Database Tables
- Network Protocols
- Authentication
- Mobile Application User Interface
- Security
- Network Administration
- User Experience
- Access Control
- Operating System Interactions
- Performance
- Data Backup
- File Formats
- Legal (FERPA, etc.)
- New User Enrollment
- Web Client
- Database Queries
Every technical specialist should receive at least one area of expertise. Note that some areas may require more than one specialist.