Re[2]: Estimating time needed for a project

[Harry Hager <hhager -at- dttus -dot- com>]

     Robert,
     
     However much I agree with Rick's comments, especially the lunacy of 
     your predicament, they probably won't help you solve the problem THIS 
     time. The comments from other listers about doing the important stuff 
     first is the way to go now. 
     
     However, Robert, I hope you realize there is a bigger problem here. 
     (Unless this is a one time screwup due to some strange product 
     scheduling screwup or pubs team assignment screwup.) That bigger 
     problem is why was the "Pubs team" kept in the dark about this project 
     until it's time for release? To me, the battle you should fight and 
     need to win is the battle to have the Pubs team involved earlier in 
     the project so that these lunacy situations do not happen again. Your 
     managers need to be made to understand that what you do is not magic, 
     not trivial, and not easy, and you are not there to simply clean up 
     after the developers and engineers. They need to understand that the 
     pubs team has some expertise they bring to the table but that 
     expertise is virtually useless if the Pubs team doesn't get involved 
     with the project early in the development effort. If you don't or 
     cannot change this attitude, you can expect more of the same.
     
     Good Luck.
     
     H. Jim Hager
     hhager -at- dttus -dot- com
     
     


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: Estimating time needed for a project
Author:  rick -dot- ramsey -at- east -dot- sun -dot- com at Internet-USA
Date:    2/17/00 11:32 AM


Robert,
     
I won't even try to give you specifics, since for me estimating the length 
of a project is an art form based on applying experience and intuition to 
all the facts I can gather rather than a science based on metrics, but I can 
give you a couple of pointers from 20+ years of tech writing:
     
1.  Rewriting a bad draft is tougher than writing it from scratch.
     
2.  Programmers are the Real Men of high tech.  They have a difficult time 
admitting that they don't understand something and they hate to ask for 
directions.  That doesn't mean they don't need directions.  If you find one 
in a moment of weakness and you buy him a few beers, he might confess to you 
that your well written programmer's guide actually saved his bacon on more 
than one occasion.  Next morning, don't expect him to remember what he said.
     
3.  Don't let anyone degrade you and your profession to that of typist by 
even entertaining deadlines of such magnificent lunacy as the 10 days you've 
been given for the programmer guides.  When you get those engineering 
drafts, roll them up, walk up to the engineering manager, knock him down, 
and with your size 12's square on his chest, wave the rolled up draft in 
front of his face and ask him, "Do you want to eat this nicely or ..."
     
Good luck,
     
Rick
     
     
----- Original Message -----
From: Robert Heath <rheath -at- eGain -dot- com>
To: TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> 
Sent: Wednesday, February 16, 2000 1:21 PM 
Subject: Estimating time needed for a project
     
     
> The Pubs team to which I belong has been made responsible for taking a 
> collection of docs from our engineers and assembling them into two
> complementary programmer's guides. We won't receive the docs until Monday 
or
> so of next week and the guides are due on the 29th of this month. ...
     
     
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
Sponsored by Weisner Associates Inc., Online Information Services
Training & consulting for RoboHELP, Dreamweaver, HTML, and HTML-Based Help. 
More info at http://www.weisner.com/train/ or mailto:training -at- weisner -dot- com -dot- 
     
Your web site in 32 languages? Maybe not now, but sooner than you think. 
Contact ForeignExchange for the FREE paper, "3 steps to successful 
translation management" (http://www.fxtrans.com/3steps.html?tw).
     
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: hhager -at- dttus -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-27056L -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com 
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit 
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.