TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
>I've been asked to recommend solutions to a documentation problem, and I'm
>hoping you whirlers can help me by picking apart my ideas.
Bill D. wrote:
> You have described the environment and some symptoms.
>
> What are the (succinctly stated) problems, in order of their importance?
Brian replied:
>Ummm...lemme see...
>As I mentioned, support and data conversion and docs are all burning
through
>lots of resources providing ad-hoc help to clients. Docs are my bailiwick.
>The problem is that I'm often blindsided by urgent requests to get
something
>in writing and out to clients in an email attachment. As a result, the
>content is inconsistent and it's delivered haphazardly (although it
pretends
>to be a formal client communication), it's up to clients to distribute the
>information to all their users, all my other projects suffer, and...well, I
>guess that's it.
>
>Is that what you're looking for? Maybe there's a distinction between
>"symptom" and "problem" that I'm not aware of...feel free to enlighten me!
Bill D. pontificated:
There is a major distinction between symptoms and problems. Symptoms are the
result of problems. Here's an example. You go to the doctor with a stomach
ache. The doctor prescribes medication. You take the prescription medication
and your stomach feels better, some of the time. But, what caused the
stomach ache in the first place? It turns out that you love hot peppers and
eat them twice a day. Now, the problem is not your stomach ache, that's a
symptom. The problem is your love of peppers. Eating hot peppers is not the
problem. However, your symptoms come about from eating the peppers. Stop
eating the peppers, your stomach ache goes away, and there is no need for
the prescription. Now, in this case, you did not remove your love of hot
peppers, the real problem. But you eliminated all of the symptoms.
OK, back to reality. One symptom is you are being blindsided by urgent
requests. The question is, why are you being blindsided? If you can answer
that, you may get to the root of the problem. What is happening is a symptom
of some underlying cause. Maybe you can (eventually) eliminate the root
cause and maybe you can't. In any event, you still have to deal with the
day-to-day urgent requests. But you should try to eliminate the cause (that
is, the problem) of these requests. Then, you would not be blindsided ---
because you would have made the problem (not the symptom) go away. We still
have to be prepared for the unexpected, either problems or symptoms. That's
what we get paid for.
As a suggestion, in your spare time, list each item that is driving you up
the wall. Work backwards until you can discover "why" that particular thing
occurred in the first place. If you know the root cause you may be able to
eliminate it, change it, or control it. In reality, you may or may not be
able to solve the problem. In that case you will continue treating the
symptom.
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
