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Re: Bouncing Reality Checks

Subject: Re: Bouncing Reality Checks
From: Fred Sampson <wfreds -at- cruzio -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Mon, 09 Dec 2002 10:57:25 -0800


Are you sure the SME meant "accurate" and not "complete"? Given time constraints and such that we all deal with, sometimes the scope of documentation doesn't cover everything we'd like to--but what we do document had better be accurate. While one can argue that incomplete = inaccurate, I think incomplete doc is less damaging than inaccurate.

When asking for reviews, I sometimes tell a reluctant reviewer, "At least make sure I'm not lying to the user."

-Fred

At 09:18 AM 12/9/2002 -0800, you 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.

=====
Tom Murrell

Fred Sampson
wfreds -at- cruzio -dot- com
http://radio.weblogs.com/0107659/


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References:
Bouncing Reality Checks: From: Tom Murrell

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