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That method of
> debate has a name that I once knew... something bucolic... um,
> "hayseed"? Nope. Um, "scarecrow"? Nope. Help me out here, I'm grasping
> at ... "straws"... :-)
>
"Trying to thread a camel thru the eye of a needle inna haystack."
But what about this one?
"
> The notion that TWs (or programmers) have arcane skill sets so
> specific to the particular job at hand that they are unreplaceable is
> misguided. If that situation exists, it is a deficiency in managerial
> competence; the manager(s) turned over responsibility for task
> completion to the employees.
I classify it as a variant of the rhetorical device known as "mirrors"
which comprises barbershop mirrors, funhouse mirrors, smoke and ....
That is, if the writer or programmer does not execute and document the
work so thoroughly that their successor can simply pick up the thread
and continue where they left off, and that failure is taken as a failure
of management, then isn't the management failure likely to be actually a
failure at some higher level (let's say, a stockholder failure, just for
hyuks) to require a thoroughgoing documentation methodology on all
projects great and small, such that no one can gain career leverage by
stashing secret special knowledge in a private hope chest. AND, to
complete the mirror cycle, of course, the tech writer is responsible for
making the mandated project documentation happen, and the manager must
facilitate the tech writer by ensuring access, and all dev leads are
obliged to be forthcoming, etc...
Honextly, I've begun thinking that the OP is a brilliant management
theoretician and strategist. Let's get him onboard before some rogue
power discovers he's missing or snaps him up.
Ned Bedinger
doc -at- edwordsmith
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