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Subject:RE: A technique to get on development's good side From:"Neumann, Eileen" <ENeuman -at- franklintempleton -dot- ca> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Thu, 12 May 2005 13:38:09 -0400
Thanks John for posting this. It's food for thought for me. I was inspired by this to ask to be included in a series of meetings with the users of my procedures, instead of grumbling to myself about not being included. Not the same thing as doing folks a favor, but a step in the right direction to get myself more involved in the business. And as soon as I asked, I was included - no big deal actually.
Eileen Neumann
Business Rules and Procedures
-----Original Message-----
From: bounce-techwr-l-177285 -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:bounce-techwr-l-177285 -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of John Posada
Sent: Wednesday, May 11, 2005 3:48 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: A technique to get on development's good side
I've been at this gig for about 2 1/12 months and am on first-name
basis with all 20 oof the developers. However, unless I went to them
with a question, it was clear that they belived there was a line
between what they did and what I did, since my main SME on what I'm
working on now is in Winston-Salem...till today.
About 3 weeks ago, I was asked by the dept admin support person if I
could create a PDF of an Excel and I did so. Three days ago, I was
asked again by the same person if I could make another PDF. I did so.
This morning, on a whim and without management approval, I sent an
email to the 20 developers in the group, saying that if they needed
any PDFs made, just send me the Word file by email and I'd have it
back in 15 minutes. No biggee.
Suddenly, at lunch, I was invited to their brown-bag lunch where they
discuss an interesting book, where we more started discussing what I
do...very few of them actually knew. An hour ago, one of the
developers asked if I could help rewrite a server installation
document, with the comment "I think it is fine, but people keep
telling me they cannot follow it...can you help me?" I just got off
the phone with a developer in Winston-Salem on another matter.
Oh, and a DBA asked if I could PDF her database Best Practices
document.
Coincidence?
John Posada
Senior Technical Writer
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