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> My only reservation is that project mgt methodology
> itself includes a communications plan and PM people
> think they are the expert on this becasue they are PM
>trained.
>From the plan perspective, they are. Their plan is going to include
benchmarks and deadlines. It has to. How they can they manage getting
the application out the door on X date 9 months down the road if they
cannot account for all parts, including documentation.
Your job is to meet those deadlines and benchmarks.
> Yes they are good PM managers but they should listen
> to what communications experts can contribute to a
> communications plan
If they are good PMs, they will listen. They will ask for
documentation's input. However, as the name indicates, they are
project MANAGERS and documentation is part of the project, as is
marketing, development, QA, and everything else, from inception to
GA. You will find that to remain in lockstep with all the other parts
of the project, with documentation's input, they are going to set
deadlines and you need to comply with those deadlines. At the same
time, they will manage the others dates to make sure you have what
you need at a certain point to do YOUR job.
What they won't tell you is HOW to meet those deadlines, and that is
what document management is there for.
BTW...don't fight the PM. At my last gig where a PM was involved, he
was my best conduit on getting Dev to maake feature changes. We met
daily and worked very well together.
John Posada
Senior Technical Writer
"The word "genius" isn't applicable
in football. A genius is a guy like
Norman Einstein." -
--Joe Theisman, NFL football
quarterback & sports analyst.
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