Re: Technical Communicators on Software Development Teams

[Chuck Blessing <chuck -dot- blessing -at- CBIS -dot- COM>]

Cathy  (strawbie @ sfsu.edu) wrote:
>I'm doing research on technical writers and their value to software
>products and product documentation by being included with the overall
>development of software products.  Can anyone offer any insight on this
>issue?

I am trying to convince my management that a technical writer needs to be on the
requirements development team. By participating in requirements development,
the writers will not only better understand the system, but also may point out
requirements that could be satisfied by documentation rather than software. This
point is appealing to development managers who may have not enough people to
code all the changes.

This point is part of a several page proposal that I wrote, which argues that a
tech
writer needs to be involved in requirements. I can send this to your e-mail
address
if you are interested. It is specific to the project that I am on, but you may
find it useful.

I 'd also be interested in seeing what other people have to say on this point.


*********************************
Chuck Blessing
Cincinnati Bell Information Systems, Inc. (CBIS)
Cincinnati, Ohio
chuck -dot- blessing -at- cbis -dot- com
     - OR -
cjb -at- one -dot- net