Re: Quality of source material from Development

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

"Salan Sinclair" wrote...
 
> 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.
> 
> A friend of mine is a Doc Manager at a new company. She expected Option
1,
> but the Dev Manager is delivering Option 3.

Sounds to me like your doc manager friend wants to worry about fonts and
commas and not be bothered with all that "content" stuff. Ahhh, another
STC member enters the work force. 

Honestly, the engineers should NOT deliver an Option 1. That leads to
meaningless documentation because the writers have ZERO stake in the
accuracy of the material, they just assume the material is
complete...which it never is. 

Ideally, the SMEs should be able to sit down for an hour (or so) explain
the basic technology and then let you loose on a system. As you test,
research, and evaluate the technology, questions should be funneled to
technical person to answer and discuss as appropriate. The tech writers
should all be hyper-advanced users/testers of the products/technologies. 

I would tell your doc manager friend that she should get used to her
development manager's ways and start learning the technology. 

> Are there other options? Hire more tech writers? Hire
programmer/writers?
> Hire a tech writer for the Development department?

Tell your friend to write the word "TECHNICAL WRITER" on a piece of paper
and stare at it for 9 1/2 hours. Your friend should focus a lot on the
first word in the title. It's first for a reason.  

That should provide a hint as to how to proceed. 

Andrew Plato 


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