Writing a White Paper

So, you’re thinking about writing a white paper, but have never written one before in your life. Your boss is telling you to come with something within two days “or else.” You’re not sure what exactly the “or else” is but you know your boss and don’t want to tempt fate. So you set out to write one.

A white paper is a business and information technology buzzword that companies are acquiring as their own (buzzword, that is). Highly paid consultants tell companies that they need to write these documents because it will give them the edge over their competition, so they do.

Think of a white paper as a cross between a a marketing brochure and a technical document. Most white papers are written by people just like you, and are presented to Executives. This document plus other white papers on similar topics help them to make informed decisions. So, when you write one, write it simply enough so that Executives can understand and explain to other decision makers, but technical enough to keep the techies happy.

An Executive Summary comes first in this document. If the Execs read nothing else, they’ll read this. This 1-2 paragraph narrative tells the reader what he/she should expect in the paper..Why so short? Consider your audience.

Next comes an introduction and background. This should be 1/2 – 3/4 of a page. Keep it simple and basic. No fluff, just short and sweet.

The next section is the “what is the project?” section. Describe the solution or product. This will probably be the largest section. Keep it under five pages.

The final section should answer the question, “what do you want me to do about it?” What action point do you need the reader to take in order  to follow through with this project?

There you have it. If you include all of those things, you should have a decent paper. The goal is to keep the white paper to under 10 pages.