re: dredging information

["Alex Silbajoris" <alsilba -at- hotmail -dot- com>]

In my own experience, I?ve had varying luck in getting information from 
developers and other Subject Matter Experts.  One skill I?ve been able to 
apply from my journalism degree is the fast interview.  Instead of asking 
for an hour of SME time, I ask for ten, maybe fifteen minutes.   I prepare 
by exhausting every other source (such as existing specs, etc.) and 
sometimes it?s useful to go ahead and make a draft based on some best-guess 
estimates of what the documentation is trying to describe.  (This can 
include incorporating the inaccuracies of early specs, whether you recognize 
them or not.)  At the meeting, I have either a list of specific questions or 
a draft ready for red-lining, and I don?t have to waste any time fishing 
blindly.  Some SMEs (well, most I?ve dealt with) express their appreciation, 
and this helps to establish a good relationship.  If they feel like you are 
paying attention and attempting to anticipate their needs, they don?t feel 
like time spent with you is like talking to a brick wall.

When the SMEs seek you out, saying something like ?I?ll bet you can produce 
this little thing I need?? or ?here?s another source document you can look 
at? you know you have their professional respect.

Which leads to my second observation:  having a good rapport with your 
sources can be invaluable.  In some places I?ve worked, the developers scorn 
the writers and that is that, have a nice day, don?t let the door hit your 
rear end as you leave.  (As others on this list have observed, some 
developers do not welcome the creation of any record of their work.)  But in 
most places the SMEs and other sources are actually human, and your 
professional relationship can include a personal element.  For example, I?ve 
been able to use my interest in hot peppers to find a conversation starter ? 
no kidding!  Others might find some sports team allegiance, or soccer-mom 
issues, or even a shared interest in some local bar or restaurant.

This might seem like nothing more than incidental trivia, but it gives the 
SME a reason to want to speak to you, aside from whatever other professional 
communications you may have.  This has helped me even in a situation when 
the SME ?did not get along with the previous writer? and the work was not 
progressing.  It has also helped when the manager of the SMEs disallowed 
them to speak to the trainers because of time concerns ? we would actually 
sneak in some redline sessions over coffee in the lunchroom, on our break 
time.  Kind of like passing notes in school.

If you can?t develop the personal element of the professional relationship. 
you risk losing your access to the freshest sources of information.  If you 
can only work from existing documentation such as specs, you will have more 
problems when the product does not reflect what your sources describe ? you 
end up providing an accurate description of what that product was supposed 
to have been, or what it was at one time in the planning process.

Let's see, that's not quite vaporware - maybe were-ware.

- A


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