Re: What do you do when you don't have anyone with the time to review and edit your docs

[Janet Swisher <jmswisher -at- gmail -dot- com>]

On Mon, Jan 18, 2010 at 1:27 PM, Wade Courtney <wade -dot- courtney -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I've just recently finished a user guide. I've sent it out for review, and I
> have reviewed and edited it many times myself, but I am at a point where I
> can no longer spot my mistakes. What do you do when there is no one to read
> your stuff, and they still want to push out the docs anyway without a proper
> review.
>
> I feel (sorry David) that they are going to come back to me and nail me for
> mistakes, even though they know that there wasn't a proper review. I have
> worked for employers in the past that expected perfection. I realize that
> this concept is not realistic, but it's still very prominent.
>
> Am I making sense? Does anyone have any advice?

The most important kind of review is the technical review, not the
proofreading review. The mistakes that you might get slammed for are
not missing commas or dangling participles, but technical factual
errors that somebody should have told you about, but didn't.

The analogy I use with software engineers is that shipping doc without
reviewing it is like shipping software without testing it. Unlike
software test automation, there are no tools for testing the meaning
of a document (spelling and grammar checkers, which are quite limited,
are beside the point). Even with software tests, someone has to sit
down and write them; likewise someone has to sit down and read the
docs.

When you send the doc for review, include a statement that "If I have
not received feedback by <reasonable deadline>, I will assume that you
are satisfied with the accuracy of this document." Keep that email as
derriere coverage.

--
Janet Swisher, http://www.janetswisher.com
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