Re: Due diligence and technical writing? What is it?

[Sandy Harris <pashley -at- storm -dot- ca>]

sclarke -at- nucleus -dot- com wrote:
> 
> Hello everyone:
> 
> As a newbie contractor I am struggling to understand 1) what due diligence
> means

Due diligence is a technical legal term. For a precise answer, consult 
a corporate lawyer.

Roughly, it is the stuff your shareholders, customers. neighbors, etc. have
a right to expect. 

If something goes horribly wrong -- say the company loses a fortune and
shareholders are damaged, or the product kills customers, or the factory
poisons the area -- then there are some big questions about whether you
	did all you could to avoid it,
	took reasonable precautions,
	acted professionally,
	acted responsibly,
	...
Due diligence is a technical term somewhere in that area. I think it 
includes some of all the above.

Senior people -- board members, auditors, managers, ... -- have some
protection from legal liability if they have shown due diligence.

For example, say your car explodes and kills you. Your heirs can
perhaps sue the manufacturer, but likely not the CEO or directors
personally.

If some disaster strikes and someone who was damaged can prove a 
failure of due diligence, then those people have no protection at
all. They may not be directly responsible for the disaster, but
they are personally responsible for their own diligence, and they
can be sued into oblivion or charged for neglecting it.

Suppose the manufacturer of the exploding car had provably skimped
on testing as a money-saving policy, or had known of the problem
but not notified customers to avoid bad publicity. If the court
agrees that the board and CEO should have prevented these errors
as a matter of due diligence, then the board members and CEO are
personally liable. Your heirs' lawyers can have a field day.

> and 2) specifically what it means in conjunction with technical
> writing. I've searched the archives and viewed bits and pieces but nothing
> definitive.

For writers, it might mean things like getting documents reviewed
for technical accuracy, testing users' ability to do tasks as
instructed, reporting bugs discovered while documenting, covering
any risks associated with the product, highlighting warnings, ...

It might also include procedural things like using revision
control software, having records of review and sign-off, periodic
reviews or re-tests of older docs, having the QA team's brief
include looking at docs, providing a feedback procedure so users
or  tech support can report problems with the docs, ...

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