Re: Working with developers (was Re: About The Cloud: Quick-Read Suggestions)

[Anne Robotti <arobotti -at- gmail -dot- com>]

I've gotten on the good side of many a developer with the phrase, "I booked
an hour, but I've really narrowed it down to one question, can I just ask
it and get out of your way?" Also, application access helps - I get it the
first day in a dev environment whenever possible. When the software does
something really cool, I let them see that I think it's really cool. Often
they think it's really cool too - and if they thought of it to satisfy a
rather standard business requirement, they're often happy to tell me about
their thought processes and how they came up with the idea, and from THOSE
conversations I gain a wealth of helpful knowledge. Not just about them,
but about the software, the business, the users, etc.

Anne



On Wed, Apr 3, 2013 at 9:01 PM, Keith Hood <klhra -at- yahoo -dot- com> wrote:

> Jessica, you said "It helps, of course, to bother them as little as
> possible and to ask the smartest questions you can."  It's been my
> experience the second part of that sentence is the critical point.
> Software developers have a very strong tendency to consider themselves a
> technical and intellectual elite.  It is very common for them to refuse to
> make time for other people because they feel those other people somehow
> don't measure up.  They easily develop the attitude that they shouldn't
> waste their time with people who don't know as much as they do, because
> they're afraid they'll get trapped into having to spend a lot of time
> giving baby-talk explanations.
>
> It can be crucial for tech writers working in software projects to get
> training in software development, and software QA.  That can make a world
> of difference in relations with the people you have to go to for
> information.
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