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Re: 2 weeks !

Subject: Re: 2 weeks !
From: "Mike O." <obie1121 -at- yahoo -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 05 May 2004 15:18:46 -0400


dan -dot- gallagher -at- pulsartech -dot- com wrote:

I'm not quite sure how to deal with this situation (besides just trying my
best). Maybe some of you veterans can give me some insight into dealing
with it. Or at least prepare me for dealing with these engineers who think
tech wriers are glorified secretaries (not to reignite that thread).

My employer has been developing a new multi-processor controlled comm. box
for over a year now. I repeatedly asked and prodded them regarding my
documentation duties to no avail. I've tried to talk with developers and
engineers about the product during it's development to try and learn about
it.

Now I get this email from my boss's protoge saying they need a new manual
for this very complex box in two weeks. I don't think I can produce a
manual for this thing in two weeks.

Old consultant's trick: Get some manuals for similar products and see what they look like. Not that you are going to copy any text from them, but at least you can see what kind of topics to include in your manual, and what the scope is.

1. Start TODAY on the manual. Make an outline that includes at least the Top Ten most important topics. If you don't know something, put in a placholder that says "DEVELOPMENT TEAM WILL PROVIDE INFO HERE." Especially if there is a long reference list or appendix, generate all the terms and put in placeholders for the definitions.

2. Then tomorrow, or asap, circulate the ugly thing for review. Meet with everybody you can to fill in the placeholders.

Repeat Steps 1 and 2 every day for the next two weeks... Stick to your scope; don't be afraid to say no, even to VIPs, for new time-consuming topics. Offload pieces of work whenever you can.

During the day you will be meeting with engineers and accessing the hardware/software where appropriate. At night you will be drawing diagrams, reformatting, and writing up your notes from the day.

Good luck. See you in two weeks...

Mike O.

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