Re: Documents before products

[Lucille Lattanzi <llattan -at- ESTEE -dot- COM>]

Sue Heim commented:
>
>John Ahlstrom wrote:
>> A couple of days ago someone wrote a pitiful
>> lament and a wonderful response to the problem
>> it lamented.  Something like:
>>         My boss said I have to have this
>>         thing documented and the code is not
>>         even writtent yet.  When I asked "How?",
>>         he said, "Make reasonable guesses."
>
        >         If I could I would write:
        >         "If you type any key, your computer will
        >         crash.  If you call our technical support,
        >         they will blame Microsoft."
    ...
In many years working for software companies, I "wrote" a few manuals
based entirely on external design documents.  I once did research over
the phone with folks at the client site who thought I was logged into
their software. The head of programming couldn't see wasting a log-on on
the tech writers. All I had in front of me were screen shots.  I thought
this short-sightedness was SOP in the software industry. (That company
is now out of business.)
And you thought technical writing wasn't creative.

PS - I'm glad to see the feuding is over. I was ready to unsubscribe. I
see enough in in-fighting every day from my cube.

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