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Subject:Due diligence and technical writing? What is it? From:"Hart, Geoff" <Geoff-H -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 27 May 2002 09:45:10 -0400
Sara-Sue Clarke wonders: <<1) what due diligence means and 2) specifically
what it means in conjunction with technical
writing.>>
Simplistically speaking (since this is a legal term, and requires a lawyer's
definition), "due diligence" means that you have made all reasonable efforts
to make sure something works right and safely. If you encounter a common
problem while reviewing or testing a product, you must take steps to correct
the problem or to warn users clearly if it can't be corrected. One technical
writing aspect of this is that you should file bug reports with developers
and try to persuade them to fix problems, and particularly the dangerous
ones. If they're recalcitrant and the problem is truly dangerous, you should
go over there head and document the problem to a senior manager who can do
something about it.
More directly (since development isn't your responsibility and you can't
force developers to make changes), you must do your best to ensure that
nobody will ever come to harm (or lose large amounts of time or money) as a
result of an easily preventable error in your writing. The problem, as
always, is in the definition of "easily preventable", which means that a
reasonably attentive person would have spotted the problem and tried to fix
it. In a court of law, that definition generally comes down to who has the
better lawyer.
On the whole, you should be protected by your company against lawsuits and
other unpleasantness arising from faulty products or documentation, though
of course they might decide to turn you into the scapegoat. If you ever find
yourself in a situation where you are certain a change must be done to
protect users, and your employer won't make that change or let you warn
users of the problem in your documentation, make sure to get a written note
into the system that proves you raised the problem and they refused to do
anything about it. In the rare case where a plaintiff comes after you
directly, or you get volunteered as the scapegoat, such memos are your only
good defense to prove that you acted in good faith.
--Geoff Hart, geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada
580 boul. St-Jean
Pointe-Claire, Que., H9R 3J9 Canada
"User's advocate" online monthly at
www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/usersadvocate.html
"When ideas fail, words come in very handy."--Goethe
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