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> The same. Most tech writers out there treat SME's like priests and
> reverends. The fact is, most SMEs are morons doing the absolute
> minimum to
> get paid. Trusting the information from these people is synonymous
> to getting investigative news from the National Enquirer.
To add on to Andrew's post. Sometimes you will need input from a SME,
and you wonder why you don't get it.
SMEs, just like everyone else, hate starting with a blank white
screen. If you need input, first create a draft of what you would
have liked to get from the SME based on what you know. This takes
research and proves you've done it".
Then, send it to the SME a day or two before your scheduled meeting,
telling him to markup, correct, change, spindle or mutilate what you
sent and that you'll discuss it with him at the meeting.
Chances are, you'll get great stuff back prior to the meeting and you
might not even need the meeting.
This has always worked great for me. It also gets the message across
that with or without his help, something is going into the doc, and
wouldn't he rather have the facts correct? (especialy if you don't
get a response, they go in wrong, and when asked about it, can prove
that you did send the SME version for his approval and got no
cooperation.)
=====
John Posada, Senior Technical Writer
"How to be happy in life: Never impose your beliefs
on anyone else and never fry bacon in the nude."
-- Anon mailto:john -at- tdandw -dot- com, 732-259-2874
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