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Well, you know your environment and the people you work with better than I
do, but it seems foolhardy to me to not check your facts or get
corroboration. But then, I'm a journalism grad, and it's in my nature to
get confirmation from as many sources as possible. (I've also been burned a
few times by harried SME's with no malicious intent, but a need for me to go
away so they could meet _their_ deadline.)
-- Martin
"Sean Brierley" <sbri -at- haestad -dot- com> wrote in message news:163390 -at- techwr-l -dot- -dot- -dot-
Well, I don't have time to poll every SME and conduct research. I sorta
have to take the SME at their word--which can be tough if your doc is
open to review by SMEs with a slightly different spin, because you can
get into a situation where SMEs up the food chain start routinely
overriding and requiring changes of content already approved by SMEs
lower on the food chain.
This idea of not taking the SME's word is exactly the issue in a recent
Intercom magazine article, where a piece on the difference between
online help and printed docs revolves around some tired falsehoods about
the failure of single-sourcing--that is, should the Intercom editors
have taken the article's author at her word or should they have checked
with a SIG or other experts first?
In any event. Even though my SMEs get trumped by managers on occasion, I
still take them at their word unless it occurs to me they might be
wrong.
-----Original Message-----
From: Richard G. Combs [mailto:richard -dot- combs -at- voyanttech -dot- com]
Richard Pineger <no -dot- spam -dot- please -at- totalise -dot- co -dot- uk> wrote:
Obligatory techwriting tie-in: Don't take your SME's word -- especially
if
your SME has an ax to grind.
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