RE: Respect

[John Posada <jposada01 -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

...
> Exactly--and I don't think that we're in disagreement at all.
> What you're describing is _exactly_ why the developers put
> a sign reading "testing guru" on my door. That said,

I had a developer, in a meeting, say "Give it to Johnny...he'll break
ANYTHING!"

> I'd say that you're adding value _by_ finding errors and
> conveying the issues to development. The acts of getting
> involved and driving resolution of issues add value,
> and add value that just putting words on paper does not
> add. That's what I'm saying. It's a question of semantics,
> really.

I hope we're not just finding errors, though that happens. By putting
it on paper, the logic (or faulty logic) of a sequence is examined.
By documenting an awkward process, the emporer is shown to have no
clothes. More than once, we've encouraged development to change a
process because once they saw it on paper, they saw how bad it was. 
Fixing errors doesn't add value, the errors only took it away.
However, materialy changing the steps that a user performs DOES
increase the value of the product. I'd guess that falls under
usability testing. Does usability testing increase product value? Is
it is possible to write solid documentation about an application that
DOESN'T include this?

> If you want to call the process you describe the act of
> writing, I can go for that. But it's not the typical
> narrow definition of _writing_.

As far as my way not being true writing, I cannot think of any other
way TO write. Are there those that passively write something and if
they see it is difficult to document because it is difficult to
perform, that they don't let anyone know, but just put words on paper?

=====
John Posada, Senior Technical Writer
"I am a bomb disposal expert. If you see me running, try to keep up."
mailto:john -at- tdandw -dot- com, 732-259-2874

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