Re: Understanding the things you document

[Lane Pasut <Larissa -dot- Pasut -at- OMEGARESEARCH -dot- COM>]

I for one don't even see how this can be a question! How can you write about
something you don't know/understand? Say you're not an SME and therefore a
"collector" of information, during the collection process, it is inevitable
that you will learn and understand the program! If you don't, your
documentation will be basic, incomplete and superficial at best.

I do know that some companies don't expect their technical communicators to
understand the program, and I think this is probably a symptom of a larger
problem (lack of understanding of the role of the technical communicator)
and will probably result in your not getting the resources you need or
having the product development cycle include adequate documentation time.

My opinion, of course.

Lane Pasut
User Education
Omega Research, Inc.


                -----Original Message-----
                From:   Thom Randolph [mailto:thom -at- HALCYON -dot- COM]
                Sent:   Wednesday, July 07, 1999 12:06 AM
                To:     TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
                Subject:        Re: Understanding the things you document

                At 10:27 PM 7/6/99 -0500, you wrote:
                >With everything I've documented in the past, I have
                >always understood at some level how the device or
                >program worked. I'm getting the picture at my new
                >job that understanding the program is secondary to
                >producing the documentation. Do other writers face
                >this same challenge?
                >



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