RE: Quality of source material from Development

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

> How much written information should software development department
> provide
> for a technical writing department?
> Option 1. Enough for tech writers to write the documentation, with
> few questions.
> Option 2. Enough for tech writers to get a complete scope but not
> the details.
> Option 3. Enough for tech writers to get started, or whatever
> information developers can provide in the time allowed.
> --------
> 
> IME, the Dev Manager will always expect Option 1 (We gave you the
> spec and the code! What do you mean, you want to bother us with
> questions???)

Jane...I interpreted Option 1 as being given all the information
possibly  needed. Enough that there could be no questions. Option 3
is a minimum amount of information, which would apply in your
scenario.

In my opinion...they dev people should give you as much as they can,
of information that belongs to them..development-type data. They
don't do the writer's job, but they don't hold back their information
either. The bast way for this to happen is to have access to the
development documentartion, specifications, and to be included in
their distribution lists and to their meetings.

At the same time, to expect that no matter what they give, that no
questions will be required is not practical, since our job is to ask
questions that the developer wouldn't think of no matter what they
gave you.

I don't see this as any of the options.


=====
John Posada, Senior Technical Writer
mailto:john -at- tdandw -dot- com, 732-259-2874

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