TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:RE: More on Validating documentation From:"Barb Einarsen" <barb -dot- einarsen -at- nettest -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 25 Mar 2002 10:33:53 -0500
Eric asked:
So, in your experience, are relationships with developers really as
non-existent or dysfunctional as some threads on TECHWR-L would suggest?
Is there really no sense of "we're all working together to make this
overall product as good as we can make it"?
I reply:
I have always had a neutral to good experience with developers (and
management, and quality control, and technical support, and marketing
...). I include neutral because I have had the unfortunate experience of
working places where you are completely buffered from other groups. I
did not enjoy these places and did not stay long.
Eric asked:
If so, are _you_, as a tech writer, part of the solution,
or part of the problem, or both? Why?
I reply:
Part of the solution. First, I do not go into a job expecting to be
anything other than another valued team member. Second, I take pride in
my work and want to do the best job I can. Third, I conciously make my
work easy to criticize, which means that I get a lot of feedback and am
not viewed as having a large or fragile ego.
Eric mentioned:
In virtually every tech writing job (contract and
permanent) I've had, I've had to spend some time in "retraining" the
developers and QA staff that I worked with.
I reply:
I have been told many times that people changed their view of writers
based on their experiences with me, but I did not set out to retrain
anyone. I just do my work and try to help in any way I can. However, one
thing does happen at every job, I always seem to get more
responsibilities (education materials, UI review, UI design, marketing
collateral and so on). Lucky for me I crave variety.
Thanks for the questions. This was fun!
Barb
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
PC Magazine gives RoboHelp Office 2002 five stars - a perfect score!
"The ultimate developer's tool for designing help systems. A product
no professional help designer should be without." Check out RoboHelp at http://www.ehelp.com/techwr
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
