Re: Peter Taylor's thread:

["Steven J. Owens" <puff -at- NETCOM -dot- COM>]

Folks,

I'm afraid I missed the beginning of this thread (so much mail going
by; my techwr-l mailbox was a MEGABYTE after just a few days of not
getting around to cleaning it out :-).  However, I thought I'd comment
anyway.

Peter Taylor writes:
>Peter wrote:
>
>"What would you do if it it was 3:00, you had a deadline at 3:30, and
>you had just added some new functions to the reference section and you
>couldn't verify their accuracy because the developer responsible had
>gone home. What would you do within that half hour to ensure the the
>document was accurate?"

     My second response probably would have been along the lines you
want (my first assignment in my first career tech-writing position was
to develop the online help system - in C, that is :-).  There's
nothing like spending a few years writing RDBMS developer's guides and
programmer references, working form a half-million-line source code
base written by a team of engineers in China to teach you self
reliance :-).

     My first response might have been a little more challenging,
though, "Why the hell am I adding new functions to the reference
section at 3:30 on the deadline day?"

     There are some points at which you just have to draw the line and
say the information is untimely.  Needless to say, life doesn't always
cooperate and sometimes you're forced into awkward spots by
circumstances (usually poor management).  That's where I'd start
querying you on what happened to throw the project off so much, what
the priorities of the situation are, whether or not I have access to
the source code, etc.

     I once interviewed at a fairly successful technology company
(here's a hint; they make most of the ATM switches out there :-) and
got about 3/4 of the way through the day when I met some upper-level
VP-type person who very aggressively started talking about how they
expected people to work 60-80 hours a week.  I responded with "You do
what you have to do to meet deadline, but if it happens consistently
then it points to poor management and improper scheduling practices."

     Needless to say, this was *not* the answer he was looking for :-).

Steven J. Owens
puff -at- netcom -dot- com


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