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On Behalf Of Gene Kim-Eng
[About the situation where the techwriter arrives/is-called-in late to
the development project party, and must bootstrap him/herself up to
speed on a product and project that the other participants have grown
from a seed and have lived with for months or years already.]
> Well, the tech writers I managed in my previous companies
> were never be in this situation in the first place, because:
>
> a) I nagged all product/project manager incessantly for early
> notifications of all new projects.
>
> b) If a project manager managed to slip a "stealth" project
> past me and then called and asked for a writer "at the
> end of the project" my response was, "You didn't
> request document support at the beginning and now
> have HOW long left before release to document this
> project? IF I have anyone available we'll look at what
> you have and let you know much documentation you're
> going to be able to get without slipping your release date."
> CC's to our upper management.
The picture is slightly different for those of us who work as lone
writers.
I've faced both of these situations:
1) the company is immature and project "management" is still being
learned, so the writer has to fend for self on many levels
2) the company has matured and project management is not only a title
but has been assigned to a dynamic and committed person (or group) who
lives and breathes process, gets a kick out of herding cats, and when
pricked bleeds GANTT charts... so the writer is automatically included
in planning, and can just concentrate on the gathering of source info
and the writing/drawing/what-we-do.
For a long-term "captive" employee writer, the first situation is
energizing though it can have its tense moments. The second situation is
almost writer-heaven, except that the project management maturity of the
company means that sheer volume of projects and work have increased
dramatically - but because of the dedicated planning-and-herding
resource, the writerly tasks are still very do-able despite the
increases.
I started my techwriter career as a member of a pubs group that had such
extravagances as:
1) A manager who knew techwriting AND (bonus of bonuses) was a good
editor
2) Actual fellow writers who could take over each others' tasks, help
out with ideas and brainstorming, perform peer reviews of output, etc.
3) A graphics person - actually a fully-fledged industrial artist.
4) A translation co-ordinator
5) A person dedicated to production and dealing with printing companies
and other suppliers (that was back in the days of printed manuals).
Constantly rubbing shoulders with all those people and disciplines
helped immeasurably when it turned out that all my techwriter jobs since
have been one-man shows. I knew enough (to be dangerous) about what
could and should be done to get documentation ready to accompany a
product release. With no one to delegate to, I do/did most of that
stuff for myself.
Kevin
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