RE: Deadlines

[jgarison -at- ide -dot- com]

Tom has a good point. While I can say I have never missed a ship date, I
also must say that there have been LOTS of times where I - and the rest of
the development team - missed planned ship dates. 

Documentation and software development go hand in hand - if the code isn't
ready, it doesn't ship, period. (If your company regularly knowingly ships
defective or badly functioning code, they are not likely to be in business
for very long.) While we cannot document in 'real time' (the docs are always
in total sync with the code), we can mitigate that to a certain extent as I
said in my earlier note.

But you have to realize that, when the code IS done, the product WILL ship,
and it's your job as the documenter to be ready for it. Yes, it also means
that you have to make tradeoffs, but there are good one and bad ones to
make. 

Acceptable tradeoff: Something is documented, but could use more depth.

Unacceptable tradeoff: Something is totally not described.


My 2¢,

John



>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Tom Storer [mailto:tstorer_tw -at- yahoo -dot- com]
>>Sent: Saturday, January 11, 2003 6:29 PM
>>To: TECHWR-L
>>Subject: Deadlines
>>
>>
>>
>>Under the subject "Preparation for a phone screen
>>interview," John Posada declares he has never missed a
>>deadline in 10 years. Susan Gallagher comes in with 20
>>years with no missed deadlines. jgarison proudly
>>reveals 30 years with no missed deadlines!
>>
>>New technical writers lurking on the list may be
>>wondering why no one is coming out and admitting that
>>they missed a deadline once or twice. Only a
>>mean-spirited begrudger would entertain the notion
>>that these three have selective memories. ;-) No,
>>there are only three possible answers to the lack of
>>confessed deadline-missing:
>>


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