Re: Style guides - doc standards vs processes

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

"Metzger, Lucinda" wrote...

> You read too much into my post, Andrew. The two guides *were* developed
> during down times, and are only updated on occasion as dept changes
warrant.

Good deal. But understand my comment. A lot of posters to this forum say
things like 

"You should always have...."
"This is the best way..."
and
"doing such and such is imperative..."

Great, but do you have the time and money to do these things? Its like the
single-sourcing (SS) debate. SS is cool and undoubtly useful in some
environments. But its presented in numerous forums as "the end-all-be-all
of technical documentation."  A "must-have" for which any organization
without it, is obviously behind the times. 

I know companies with two writers producing maybe 1000 pages a year of
docs, who think they need complex, intricate, convoluted SS solutions. The
fact is, these two writers hate writing, hate technology, and hate their
jobs. SS is more interesting and STC-friendly than actually doing their
jobs. Their employer would be far better served to fire these people and
hire some writers who actually like writing. 

Its very easy to make decisions inside a tech-writing vacuum. That is -
look only at the "cool factor" or the promises of greater efficiency. All
I ask is that writers try to break out of this "tech-writing-centric"
thinking and see themselves and their work as part of a larger slice of
the organizational pie. Is said solution really beneficial, or is it just
creating more work and overhead? 


> You've previously stated that you prefer to pound out docs and focus on
the
> quality of the content, rather than obsessing over procedures or style
guide
> issues. That's fine. However, it has saved my group a significant amount
of
> time and increased our productivity to have things documented in a
central
> place where everyone can refer to it. 

There is nothing wrong with these things. You should have them. But if
you're writers are spending all their time obsessing over their
procedures, and not writing docs, then the procedure is a total failure.
Procedures should eliminate the need to discuss procedures, not ignite
them. 

> My original post was not intended to re-start the "adhere to strict
> procedures" vs "just get the job done" war. I was simply curious to know
how
> many TW'ers have taken the extra step to document the nuances of their
> particular dept processes, and whether they considered it to be part of
a
> style guide or an altogether separate animal.

The problem with documenting nuances is that those nuances change. Then
you end up documenting how to document the nuances. Before too long,
you're entire group is arguing over nuances in a book. Fighting over trees
while their forest burns to the ground. 

And don't get me started on ISO9001. Why this turd has been piled upon the
world is a mystery to all sane, decent folk. 

Andrew Plato 

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