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Re: Bouncing Reality Checks

Subject: Re: Bouncing Reality Checks
From: "Susan W. Gallagher" <sgallagher5 -at- cox -dot- net>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Mon, 09 Dec 2002 10:39:10 -0800


Yabbut, hold this reality check up to the light and look
through it. The guy is pressed for time, is responsible
for reviewing the docs, and knows he really doesn't have
the bandwidth to do a good job. He isn't asking how good a
job *you* have to do; he's asking how good a job *he*
has to do.

Is there any way to give the guy a break? Can QA review
the docs when they test the system? Or can you isolate
just a few key areas for him to concentrate on?

If the male/female communication gap can be called a
"Mars/Venus thing", can the developer/writer communication
gap be called a "Jupiter/Neptune thing"? I think we've got
*that* kind of thing going on here.

Just my skewed perspective. %-)
-Sue Gallagher

At 09:18 AM 12/9/2002 -0800, Tom Murrell wrote:

Just wanted to check in with another reality update from the trenches.

I sat in a meeting the other day discussing the documentation of a new system
capability. THE Subject Matter Expert on this particular capability asked, "Do we
want this documentation to be 100% accurate? Or is pretty close good enough for our
needs?" It seems that he was concerned with whether or not he actually needed to
review the documentation, since it wasn't for him. HE knows the system.

Now this is the engineer, not the writer, asking this question. I guess it's not
simply a problem that writers don't care about content. Sometimes writers care more
about content than those for whom they are writing.


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References:
Bouncing Reality Checks: From: Tom Murrell

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