RE: Preliminary results - Survey of writers in small and startup software companies

["Brady, Joy" <JBrady -at- alldata -dot- net>]

Andrew Plato wrote:
"This survey is fundamentally flawed because it only asked the opinions of
other tech writers.  OF COURSE writers are going to think their role in a
small company is important."

and
"I would bet that the majority of executives and venture capitalists would
consider technical writing a very minor part of the picture in setting up a
software company."

(See David Farbey's survey links:
http://dfarbey.tripod.com/survey_about.htm  and
http://dfarbey.tripod.com/prelim_results.htm)

Depends on the purpose of the survey - is the purpose to discover the
perceived advantages to the tech writer of working in a small or startup
company?  In order to present the data later to an audience limited to tech
writers? David stated that, "The subject of the survey is the writer's
perception of his or her role at a small or startup company."  It seems to
measure their perceptions well, and that was David's stated purpose.  I
think a survey about the tech writer's own perception of his or her role
would have been fundamentally flawed if it HAD included executives and
venture capitalists.

That said, I appreciate the point Andrew makes, that we need to make
ourselves and our product a measurable asset to our companies.  So... I
guess I better put my asset back in the chair and get back to work!