Re: A technique to get on development's good side

["Gene Kim-Eng" <techwr -at- genek -dot- com>]

I work hard to squash this assumption whenever it arises, especially
from any of my writers.  Documentation is part of the product, and
the person producing it is part of the product development team,
with the responsibility of working to accomplish the product's goals,
on time to support the product release schedule and within budget.  
All of these things are established by the product's managers, usually
from Marketing or Marketing and R&D together.  The tech writer's 
role is not to serve as a "user advocate," pushing to provide users 
with the information they think the users will want, but to research 
and deliver the information *that the company wants the users to 
have and has determined they need to use the product in a manner 
that will satisfy the product's goals.*

If you are a tech writer and a company you work for or are 
considering working for tells you that they don't know what 
information they need to provide to their products' prospective 
customers and that it will be your job to tell them, my advice to 
you is to run, as fast and as far away as you can..

Gene Kim-Eng



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Bartol" <johnbartol -at- shaw -dot- ca>