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I've noticed that often technical writing job adverts (or the job specs, or
sometimes the interviewers) ask that the technical writer should be able to
provide a user guide with the product and the spec (or sometimes just with
the spec).
While it's true that with a working copy of the product, and a good detailed
specification document, it would be possible to put some kind of user guide
together, my feeling is that for the best possible output, the technical
writer needs access to the developers (and the testers, and marketing or
whoever can tell you just what the users are likely to want to do with this
product). Sometimes the product isn't working yet and the spec isn't as
detailed as they claimed and the *only* way to put a user guide together is
to talk to the developers and get the information that's in their heads or
in their unofficial working notes.
Yet I get the feeling sometimes that management feel you *ought* to be able
to do it without (ahem) "wasting the developers time asking them questions"
(sometimes you feel the developers feel this too, but there are techniques
to get round awkward uncooperative developers, particularly when you know
you have managerial support). So: how to get managerial support for
something that they think you don't or shouldn't need?
Jane Carnall
Technical Writer, Digital Bridges, Scotland
Unless stated otherwise, these opinions are mine, and mine alone.
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