TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:RE: Gnaargh! Or, I Am Not Psychic From:"Rainey, Ted" <ted -dot- rainey -at- hp -dot- com> To:"Sarah Bouchier" <Sarah -dot- Bouchier -at- exony -dot- com>, <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Wed, 13 Sep 2006 08:25:28 -0500
>What is the best process you've ever worked with (or dreamed of) that
>enables technical authors to find out about changes/new projects etc
>before the very last minute is past?
SCRUM methodology with daily stand up meetings have eliminated any of
the mysterious changes that used to show up or get dumped on the doc
team at the last minute. The AGILE process has to first be adopted then
accepted by all members of the team, though, and practiced, or it's back
to that wonderful world of waterfall method with writer-as-sleuth.
It can be a big change for an org or team, though, but if done right, is
a worthy time investment. A lot has been said about agile on the boards
- good and bad experiences alike - and there's a lot of info on the web
as well. Could be worth looking at.
-TR
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+ted -dot- rainey=hp -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+ted -dot- rainey=hp -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf
Of Sarah Bouchier
Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 11:13 AM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Gnaargh! Or, I Am Not Psychic
This will, I suspect, be a familiar rant to most of you.
I've just discovered that, shortly after both I and the client went
through and checked my company's user manual and online help against the
product, the development team made some major changes to the UI without
telling the doc team.
Normally I'd have picked this up through the paranoiac (though
justified, I feel!) checking I do anytime I have a few minutes spare,
but what with it being the last few days before the release deadline I
was working ten hour lunchless days as it was, and I +really+ didn't
have the spare time to go through the entire product to see if anything
had changed.
Unfortunately, there's scarcely a process here, never mind one that
includes the technical authors. The closest thing is the bug tracking
system, but apparently most of those changes didn't go through it (and
even if they had, I've yet to train the developers to assign bugs to
documentation after fixing).
What is the best process you've ever worked with (or dreamed of) that
enables technical authors to find out about changes/new projects etc
before the very last minute is past?
The prize for the best answer is me doing my damnedest to implement it
here :)
S.
-----------------------------------------
Sarah Bouchier
Technical Author
Easily create HTML or Microsoft Word content and convert to any popular
Help file format or printed documentation. Learn more at http://www.DocToHelp.com/TechwrlList
---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as ted -dot- rainey -at- hp -dot- com -dot-
WebWorks ePublisher Pro for Word features support for every major Help
format plus PDF, HTML and more. Flexible, precise, and efficient content
delivery. Try it today! http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l
Easily create HTML or Microsoft Word content and convert to any popular Help file format or printed documentation. Learn more at http://www.DocToHelp.com/TechwrlList
---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- infoinfocus -dot- com -dot-
