Re: Getting more than nits from reviews?

["Pro TechWriter" <pro -dot- techwriter -at- gmail -dot- com>]

I've used that approach too, and have found it to be great in a development
environment, especially if we were still working on requirements, or if I
*knew* that there were different viewpoints floating around, but the
developers were not really talking to one another :-)

Thanks for sharing that Paul.


On 5/23/07, Paul Hanson <phanson -at- quintrex -dot- com> wrote:
>
> A slight variation of this worked for me a few years ago. There were 6
> people that needed to review a specific doc. I scheduled a single
> meeting with all 6 people. I had distributed paper copies to all six a
> week earlier with the instructions to review it for technical accuracy.
>
> When we all were in the same room, one of the first things I said was
> "This meeting is about the content of the doc, not the punctuation,
> grammar, etc. So we're only going to focus on that. I'll take your
> marked up copies and look at anything you marked up that is not
> content-related outside of this meeting."
>
> We started on the first page of content and went through it,
> page-by-page. With all 6 SMEs in the room, there was debate and
> discussion and many misconceptions were cleared up. The meeting went
> very well when it was clear "content" was the focus and anything else
> was off-limits.
>
> Maybe this will work for someone else.
>
> Paul Hanson
> Technical Writer
> RoboHelp ACE -
> http://www.adobe.com/support/forums/team_macromedia/robohelp.html
> Quintrex Data Systems http://www.quintrex.com
> email: phanson at quintrex.com
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Pro TechWriter
> <snip>
>
> For those reviewers who won't--or can't--focus on the content in their
> area of expertise, I schedule a meeting with them and go through the
> document with them one-on-one. Then I can say, "okay, yeah, that needs
> to be fixed, but don't worry about that. Let's get back to your
> technical expertise: is this part (whatever) accurate technically?" That
> approach usually works, and the next time a review is needed, they need
> less "help" from me.
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PT
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Create HTML or Microsoft Word content and convert to Help file formats or 
printed documentation. Features include support for Windows Vista & 2007 
Microsoft Office, team authoring, plus more.
http://www.DocToHelp.com/TechwrlList

Now shipping: Help &amp; Manual 4 with RoboHelp(r) import! New editor,
full Unicode support. Create help files, web-based help and PDF in up
to 106 languages with Help &amp; Manual: http://www.helpandmanual.com

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