Re: OT--"obvious" writing

[Penny Staples <staplesp -at- airwire -dot- com>]

Any time I've run into this sort of problem, it's been from someone who isn't
very sure of himself, and views my suggestions as threatening.  I can usually
talk my way through the situation.

Focus on the fact that you both want the project to complete successfully and
on time. Questions to ask: What is it you don't think needs documenting? Why
not? Who is the document intended for? You're sure those people will already
understand quantum physics? OK. What do you think needs documenting? etc.

When I've had these kinds of conversations - and they work best if another more
cooperative developer is present - it's usually worked out well. Sometimes I'm
right, and can get the developers to support my approach. Other times I find
out that I was wrong, that the developer was right and just wasn't explaining
himself very well. Either way you end up with a better situation.

I've only ever run into one real brick wall and other people besides me were
having trouble with him. In that case, I just did the best I could, made sure
my boss knew what was going on, and waited for him to crash and burn. Not worth

losing sleep over.

Regards,

Penny Staples

Mike wrote:

> I recently had trouble setting a time to discuss a
> software program with one of the programmers on my
> team.  After refusing to work with my flexible times,
> he said, "I don't see why we need to document what is
> obvious already."
>
> Has anyone else on this list ever run into someone
> that arrogant?



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