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Question: Saving or storing comments and info from SMEs
Subject:Question: Saving or storing comments and info from SMEs From:indresh chauhan <indreshchauhan -at- HOTMAIL -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 14 Jul 1998 11:09:46 PDT
Hello everyone,
This is in response to Gayle Hoffman's question, posted earlier on July
9th.
I think things can work out a little by adopting a cooperative attitude
rather than a combative one. Company politics do tend to go a long way
in raising needless issues out of trivial matters. That is not to say
that Gayle's concerns are not genuine. On the contrary, such dilemmas
are faced by most technical writers everyday.
Since generalization of any sort is usually fraught with danger, lets
not assume that all SMEs, programmers and support personnel are out with
their knives all the time. Some of the guys might genuinely be concerned
about the accuracy of the manuals, and hence, it might pay to take their
advice seriously. It would be a good idea to look at things with an open
mind. As far as letting them edit documents and templates, one could I
suppose, keep two sets of documents; one, write and password protected,
and the other, open for the technical personnel to carry out amendments
they see fit. Of course, it is the technical writer who has the final
say in carrying out the changes. But atleast, the environment would
probably become more open and democratic.
Again like rotten apples in any basket, there may be a couple of
smartalec SMEs. Well, they can be dealt with in the following ways:
a) Pretend you haven't heard them.
b) Discuss their proposals in the open and expose them for what they are
worth.
c) At times, put them in their place (but with a smile on your face!).
It is a good idea to have the various proposals out in writing. However,
since it may not be possible to always have things on paper, it might
help to jot down, on a diary, comments and ideas brought forward by
others. But above all, keep an open mind. Who knows, one of the many
so-called harebrained ideas might not be so bad after all!
Regards,
Indresh Chauhan
indreshchauhan -at- hotmail -dot- com
"A good technical writer has to be a good diplomat too!"
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