RE: suggestions or support

["Grant, Christopher" <CGrant -at- glhec -dot- org>]

Hi Jennifer,

There's a very important underlying message in Cayenne's response:

> that encompasses them all. Each developer seems to know about 
> one or two modules, but no one knows the whole system. I spent
> the first day here enquiring about a system map that showed all
> the location and was met with the fact that we simply don't have
> one. Guess who endeavoured to take on making one? It's a
> difficult feat and I'm no where near done, but committing
> to it has helped me gain knowledge of not only the modules, 
> but how they work together and the workflow between them.
> It's also earned me a hell of a lot of respect amongst the
> developers, who are now using my half finished
> system map for their own understanding. Maybe you could do 
> something like this?

With a nod to the much-missed Andrew Plato :), the message here is that you
probably need to dive into the ookie, complex details of the product.  As
Cayenne said, this will gain you much: knowledge of what you're documenting,
knowledge of how the devteam works together, and the respect of everyone
involved.

Every time at my own job that I've become more involved in the process and
more knowledgeable about the product I'm documenting, the more help I get
and the more respect I earn from the clients and the developers.  Respect is
nice to feel, but ultimately, it's that respect that will cause people to
listen to you, to help you, and to respond to you in earnest.  

Don't get me wrong: bioinformatics and genomics sound like pretty technical
topics.  But like Cayenne also said, the company hired you so they have
faith in your ability to understand this stuff.  Don't get discouraged.  It
may hurt initially when the information starts to overload your brain, but
at a certain point it _will_ start to become familiar.  

The same thing goes for when people aren't talking to you.  Yeah, that's a
pain, and cumbersome, and makes your job harder, but they aren't going to
talk to you until you've earned their respect.  Until then, you'll have to
take charge and talk to people, rather than waiting for them to talk to you
(I'm not implying that's what you're doing now.  But save complaints and
problems until AFTER you deliver a product, and do whatever it takes to make
that happen.  It's much easier to criticise the process AFTER the fact, than
in the middle of it.  Bring your boss problems+solutions, rather than just
problems.)

-Chris Grant


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