Re: Would you like a fries with that style guide, redux

[Andrew Plato <intrepid_es -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

"barry batorsky" wrote...
 
> Instead of all this grounds-shifting, straw-man argumentation (the
> documentation process after all is not the same as the writing process, and
> I should know, I teach both), 

The writing process and the documentation process are the same. Explain to me
how you document something without writing?  Reverse, how do you write without
documenting something, even a thought or feeling? 

The tools, media, and information may change from project to project, but the
basic process: learn, write, edit, refine is universal. 

And just because you teach it doesn't mean you have a proprietary handle on the
truth. 

> try this old formula for describing the
> results of a plan (read: process or procedure):
> Q(p/d) x (E+C)=R 

> The Quality of a plan or decision multiplied by the Effort and Competence
> to implement it determines the Results.
> 
> A poor plan with good effort and/or competence can produce the same results
> as a good plan with poor effort and/or competence.
> 
> Do the math.  It may help avoid these ground-shifting, straw-man arguments
> that circulate endlessly.

Wait, so you're telling me that good planning can overcome incompetence and
lack of effort. 

No, it cannot. 

Good planning can temporarily cover up and hide incompetence and laziness, it
can never overcome it.  A team with lazy or incompetent people cannot
consistently produce decent documents.  They may have a few successes here and
there, but the overall quality will be poor because the real work being done,
the writing and thinking, cannot be "processed out."  Only an intelligent and
determined person can write and think effectively. 

I've seen countless organizations that had exquisite planning procedures spend
weeks, days, and months planning out their brilliance. And for some gosh-darn
reason their stuff sucks all the time. Why?  Well, they always find somebody to
blame and its usually Microsoft.  When that doesn't work, they usually go back
to blaming the fact that they didn't plan enough. As if that would help cover
up the real problem: they're idiots. The people doing the work (and planning)
were morons who were suckered into a fundamentally flawed philosophy that
procedure, process, and plans = efficiency, quality, and profit. 

Quality comes from smart people who have the motivation to succeed and the
ability (tools, incentive, and direction) to get it done. Planning HELPS
achieve quality, but it does not insure it.  I know PLENTY of software
companies with millions in profits that have minimal planning. 

Andrew Plato 

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