RE: Do I have a right to feel POed??

["whitedh" <whitedh -at- attbi -dot- com>]

Do you have a 'right' to be upset? Yes.

However, and I don't intend to be cute or unsympathetic, this is a
'normal' situation in our field. So many have commented upon it on this
forum and in other venues.

There's the classic development model in which technical communications
is an integral part of a development and deployment project. We seek
this; we promote this. However, those who run such projects are
designers or engineers, or a combination thereof, and they are primarily
concerned with what they see as the most important aspects of the
project: design, test, & implementation.

How many times have technical writers, as independents or as contract
consultants, come into an assignment to find that they have to prepare
documents that should have been done months (or years) before. The
application or tool may be just ready for testing and deployment when
the manager remembers that company policy requires a CMM or ISO9000
audit; at this point, he (or she) scurries to find a writer and editor
who will do the feasibility study, concepts document, requirements, and
design specs in the week prior to testing. And, by the way, please write
up the formal test documents for all stages of testing, too! Of course,
we probably ought to have a programmer's reference and, maybe, a guide
for users--but that would be 'gravy.'

Okay, so I may be a bit sarcastic. It happens. There's a schedule change
and there's your impending absence from the documentation team; come up
with and offer a plan to accommodate both and make that manager's job
easier. That person should have thought of this before and should have
invited you to that meeting. But, keep in mind that no company or MBA
program develops leadership; all seek merely to turn out 'managers.'

Don White
804.795.2914
whitedh -at- attbi -dot- com




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