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Subject:Re: Happy to be a Tech Writer? From:Mary Arrotti <mary_arrotti -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:Gene Kim-Eng <techwr -at- genek -dot- com>, Kevin McLauchlan <kmclauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com>, techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Date:Wed, 4 Apr 2007 12:46:21 -0700 (PDT)
There are also writers who work for organizations with many products and who work on everything. So, they could have a broader instead of deeper understanding than the dev, qa, and support folks. Sometimes that's been my experience. People in the other groups may work on or support 1-2 products. So, they have more of a capacity to delve deeply & become more expert in fewer areas.
In this situation, a writer's contribution or specialized knowledge lies more in being able to compare products or functionality within a product. In a meeting for Product A if we're discussing adding a new reporting function - I can identify how we handle reporting for our other products. (Relevant since we want to standardize behavior & UI when possible.) The QA and support people who spend 50% of their time on Product A (vs. my 10%) do know more about Product A. But they may know little about Product B or C.
There are also instances where writers - because of the type of info we write & the way we present the info - may more easily pick up on procedural or UI differences within a specific product.
My deadlines sometimes occur before QA begins to test a specific feature. I wouldn't be the expect on the relevant feature but if I meet with a developer & then share my info/docs with QA or someone who will eventually support the feature - I do become a relative expert. For a brief time anyway :^).
Gene Kim-Eng <techwr -at- genek -dot- com> wrote:
I suspect that many of us who find ourselves in this position
are working in environments where there may not *be*
"Eng-Test and QA and integration support people" who are
separate entities from whatever team the writers report to.....
----- Original Message -----
From: "Kevin McLauchlan"
> I find it fascinating that a number of you seem to work in companies where
> the writer knows more about the overall product than the Eng-Test and QA and
> integration support people.
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