RE: Why'd that take so long?

["Lisa Wright" <liwright -at- earthlink -dot- net>]

Martin,
What everybody else said, plus the answers to the following questions:

1. Who agreed that there is enough work for 4-5 writers? Are these the
same folks who are pressuring you? If they are, print up a large poster
board with the definition of "cognitive dissonance" in large letters.
(Okay, that's a joke, but someone needs to straighten them out if they
are the same people.) If they're not, enlist whoever did agree to make
it clear to the PMs that there's a ton of work.

2. In the short term, ensure that you get very clear directions about
what changes are needed for existing documents and what the requirements
are for new ones. Get deadlines and priorities and then drive to
completion. If there appears to be a change, make sure that the managers
are the ones who work out the change, not you. This is a valuable
lesson. You work on whatever they want you to work on, but make _them_
agree on what they want between themselves. Spend a minimum amount of
time fondling fonts, and then only if it is going to save you more time
_on the current project or the next one_ than it will take time to do.
Focus on writing.

Your job is to help the company get out the door the best product they
can in a timely fashion. You have to work to the company's priorities.
If you need to spend extra time on something in order to meet those
priorities, then you have to make sure they buy into the extra
time/effort needed at that time. Obviously, you should strive to use the
best "best practices" you can. But you do not need to bother everyone
else with it, and you shouldn't let it interfere with your deadlines.
It'll just annoy them, and your product managers have already proved
that they can be annoyed. 

3. For your long term solution, you are going to have to create a bit of
breathing room so that you can do the clean-up work that will ensure
shorter turnaround times in the future, and, if "they" are serious about
single-sourcing, you'll need some time to analyze that 800-page doc to
see what information belongs where. For this I can suggest a couple of
sources:

	* There was a tedious, er, lengthy and detailed discussion about
why writers should know how to use styles and how resume screeners could
use resumes to determine the TW's knowledge. December of 2001, maybe
this January, I think? Somewhere thereabouts. Check the archives.

	* Check all the single-sourcing articles that have been posted
in the last few days, including Doc's post this morning. If they aren't
able to get you another writer, then perhaps you can get a bit of time
to implement something that will shorten the production cycle.

	* Use your edit of the 800-page document as an example, but
don't whine about it. Simple arithmetic. "If styles had been used
consistently, changes to this document would've consisted of these three
steps. Instead it took all these steps." Be careful with that one
though. If the team wanted content changes and you spent a lot of time
on things that they can't see and probably don't care about, then it's
not the best example.

Finally, you absolutely need to take an objective look at why the PMs
are dissatisfied. Did you honestly do what was needed and wanted, or did
you get a bit off track? If you can honesly say, "yes, the _rewrite_
itself took the bulk of that 3 weeks, and here's why," then you should
be able to say that to them. You are a professional writer, and
rewriting a document can sometimes take a long time (not that you
shouldn't strive to be efficient also). If you misunderstood the
priorities or got a bit off track, then you should be able to take
responsibility for that as well.  "I'm sorry, I messed up that last
assignment by doing X, here's why it won't happen again." Do not become
one of the "nobody respects me" technical writers, and definitely do not
contribute to anyone else disrespecting you. Stand up for yourself, be
confident, take responsibility for your work. You and the company will
be better off.

Good luck, and let us know how things progress!

Lisa


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