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Re: Co-operation between technical writers and programmers
Subject:Re: Co-operation between technical writers and programmers From:Wayne Hausmann <wayne -at- SES -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 10 May 1996 10:03:36 CDT
Hi Ollie...
In my experience, the level of cooperation I get from the
software developers depends on 3 things. The extent to which:
1. Their manager encourages them to cooperate with me
(This usually depends on how much pressure the manager
receives from Marketing or Executive Management)
2. They respect me or enjoy working with me
(Best accomplished by improving my own engineering
skills.)
3. They fear me
("I can understand that you don't want to take the
time to explain this feature to me because you think
I'm an idiot. Just so you know, my ignorance will
leave me no alternative but to document the feature
in such a way that _everyone_ will think _both_ of us
are idiots. It's up to you.")
> I am currently involved in discussion over the level of co-operation
> there should be between the programmers writing an application
> and the technical writers involved in documenting the product,
> most particularly the online help.
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