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RE: Ever wonder why techwhirler lives seem so crazy? (a long rant)
Subject:RE: Ever wonder why techwhirler lives seem so crazy? (a long rant) From:Emily Berk <emily -at- armadillosoft -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 18 Apr 2002 09:04:09 -0700
On Tue, 16 Apr 2002 22:43:39 -0700, from a high and mighty peak, looking way down on us poor plebeians, "Jeanne A. E. DeVoto" <jaed -at- jaedworks -dot- com> wrote:
>... If you are setting a documentation deadline, you *must* make it relative to code releases, *not* absolute. ...
>
>If the schedule you've set up has relative dates, it is crystal clear to
>everyone - even to people capable of assuming you can write the
>documentation in the five minutes between code freeze and an absolute
>deadline that was set months ago, before the schedule slipped - that the
>documentation will not be finished instantly and that you are not
>committing to doing magic. Cause and effect are made manifest in the
>schedule, so if engineering slips a release, they know there will be ripple
>effects in the doc schedule - because those effects are laid out in
>CYA-able black and white. ...
>
>Anything else will only lead to heartache and all-nighters, ...
So, Jeanne. You've found a way, preferably in Microsoft Project, to compel the project managers to put only relative dates into the schedule? (Even when they've got a late-Spring skiing weekend planned for a date certain and that last, late snow won't wait?)
Pray, please share.
(Or, should I keep on looking for that magic wand I misplaced?)
--Emily, who is still feeling pretty cranky, but I've enjoyed hearing from y'all on and off list!
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~ Emily Berk ~
On the web at www.armadillosoft.com *** Armadillo Associates, Inc. ~
~ Project management, developer relations and ~
extremely-technical technical documentation that developers find useful.~
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