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To mirror most of the other ocmments - that's the way it is. I used to
be like you. Best advice I've seen here is to learn not to care so much
- that doesn't mean you don't do a good job, but you need to learn to
remove the emotional connection.
I have a mantra - if it's not life-and-death or national security, it's
*just* a job.
I had a boss years ago who had a neat plaque on his wall:
If you can't fight, flee. If you can't flee, flow.
Clare Turner, Technical Writer
Redflex Traffic Systems, Inc.
15020 N. 74th St.
Scottsdale, AZ 85260
480.607.3583
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+cturner=redflex -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+cturner=redflex -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On
Behalf Of Rebecca Stevenson
Sent: Friday, January 13, 2006 5:58 AM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: The non-learning organization?
How do you cope when you see your organization making very, very, basic
errors?
Like adding a major feature to a release halfway through development,
without changing the schedule or personnel, with the entirely
predictable result that everyone works like crazy for six months, some
people quit (schedule still doesn't change), and the product as released
is barely stable enough to call a beta?
Or having *no* requirements defined for a project and no one in charge,
so that the design phase fiddles on for an extra two months while
everyone and their brother chimes in with what they consider to be an
important capability, all of which get in because no one has the
authority to say "no"?
It seems to me that the software industry, and many individual
companies, have now been around long enough that there's no excuse for
this. There are entire libraries of books written about how to plan a
software project. Companies hold project post mortems and "lessons
learned" sessions all the time. And still the same mistakes....
I find this very frustrating, even when it's not a project that I'm on.
I don't like the waste of time and energy, or the half-baked products,
that inevitably seem to result from poor planning. What do you do to
combat the problem, or the frustration?
It's been a long week, I'm sick, and it's Friday....
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Now Shipping -- WebWorks ePublisher Pro for Word! Easily create online
Help. And online anything else. Redesigned interface with a new
project-based workflow. Try it today! http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l
Doc-To-Help 2005 now has RoboHelp Converter and HTML Source: Author
content and configure Help in MS Word or any HTML editor. No
proprietary editor! *August release. http://www.componentone.com/TECHWRL/DocToHelp2005
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