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:"Dick Margulis " <margulis -at- mail -dot- fiam -dot- net> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 25 Mar 2002 12:04:19 -0500
I had one contract assignment that was somewhat similar to what Kim describes (although not so extreme).
The situation was that the developers were employed by a large consulting firm that has since changed its name to protect the guilty (rhymes with an accounting firm that has been in the news lately). They were woefully behind on developing the system and under the gun to be productive at their high hourly rate.
The customer, disgusted with the consultant's progress to date, brought in a much smaller consulting firm to put together the doc team.
The developers were friendly enough in a social sense (well, most of them), but they were under strict instructions not to "waste" their precious time responding to queries from the doc team. Anything we couldn't suss out ourselves had to go up one chain and down another, with virtually no likelihood of actually getting a timely answer.
Conclusion: lousy management at all levels. We did our best in a bad situation. But if you are invited to work for someone who has a big consulting firm doing the development and you won't be part of their team--walk away.
Dick
"Kim Schaefer" wrote:
>
>I started a new job mid-January. This is the first job where documentation
>is totally removed from the development process. I was invited to just one
>meeting, and that was so I could take notes (which were very helpful to me).
>My questions to the SMEs largely go unanswered, are avoided, frowned upon,
>and are regarded as intrusions on their workday.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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.
