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Re: Where do you spend your time? (was RE: STC Letter to the Editor)
Subject:Re: Where do you spend your time? (was RE: STC Letter to the Editor) From:"Paul Strasser" <paul -dot- strasser -at- windsor-tech -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 5 Nov 2002 09:01:06 -0700
A. Plato first wrote:
> > 50% - Learn products & technology
> > 25% - Write (from my knowledge, not from SME notes)
> > 20% - Edit (ruthlessly)
> > 5% - Fonts, structure, style, etc.
to which C. Grant asked:
> ... is this typical for others on the list?
Right now (well, not *right now*, because at this very moment I'm writing
this post to the listserve, but I think you know what I mean) I'm writing a
training manual for use by a state agency for a software application. And
this software is incredibly complex. So I'm spending more than 50% of my
time learning the product, and coupling that with understanding what the
users expect it to do, and then put it on paper. I have to know this
software backwards and forwards - more than anyone else in the company, when
it comes down to it.
The fonts, structure, and style will take at most 5% of my time. I've
written training manuals before, and these tasks are no big deal. We sent a
sample or two of some other manuals I've written to the agency, and they
thought the style was fine. So that was done rather quickly. Even if
they'd have preferred different fonts or margins, no big deal. Change them
and proceed to the writing.
What's interesting for me is that learning the software and writing the
manual go hand-in-hand. I frequently discover that my understanding of the
software is incomplete during the writing of an exercise. To me, the
learning-writing-editing are sometimes interchangeable.
And my interaction with SMEs is pertty much confined to when I truly don't
understand something and I get their feedback on what I wrote: "Here's what
I wrote about the Widget process. I don't think it's right because the
design doc doesn't match the screen, and the result doesn't appear in the
widget code table. What gives?" Sometimes it's a bug, sometimes the
functionality changed, sometimes they too don't know. Sometimes I messed
up. But I only bother the SMEs when I have something in writing that they
can examine.
Fun time over. Back to work.
Paul Strasser
Windsor Technologies, Inc.
2569 Park Lane, Suite 200
Lafayette, Colorado 80026
Phone: 303-926-1982
FAX: 303-926-1510
E-mail: paul -dot- strasser -at- windsor-tech -dot- com
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