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Subject:RE: What Are Writing Skills? From:Tony Markos <ajmarkos -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Sat, 12 Mar 2005 11:03:54 -0800 (PST)
Sharon:
If an engineer (or anyone else for that matter)is
trying to consistently deliver quality work, their
basic mindset will not change from one artifact (the
product) to another (the documentation). If they
properly engineer the product, they will properly
engineer the documentation (if charged with doing
such).
Maybe you know some successful Electrical Engineers
who mimic Ted Kaczynski's personality. I will not
comment on EE's, as all my work experience has been in
software.
What I do know is that, in the engineering of
non-trivial software systems, the major part, up to
ninety-eight percent (98%), of the required work is
comming up with a comprehensive, integrated
understanding of the end-user's goals and tasks and
how all of those goals/tasks interrelate. And
absolutely, without strong people skills - a strong
end-user focus, this is an impossible task.
--- Sharon Burton <sharon -at- anthrobytes -dot- com> wrote:
.... I haveknown brilliant engineers who could not
logically write their way out of a box. It wasn't what
they did. They made things.
You really seem to think all engineers sit around all
day asking what the users want. I'm telling you, they
often don't. Typically, EEs are especially
not that interested in users - they like technology
for the sake of technology. >
Sharon Burton further said:
Please, Tony, stop assuming that anyone who does even
a good systems analysis is set to produce excellent
documentation.
To which Tony Markos responds:
Sharon, that is exactly what I am saying. Goly gee,
this is what everybody says: Good analysis sets one
up for good design of the deliverable. This is a
basic as saying that if you breath air, you won't pass
out from a lack of oxygen.
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