RE: Mayvbe O/T? - Text development vs tech writing

["walden miller" <wmiller -at- vidiom -dot- com>]

First for Kathy:
A single point failure is used to describe an item that, if failed, would
cause a failure of the system.

Now for Dick:

... what's your point? If there is no process in place, there is no process
in place. Doesn't matter what the process was s'pozed to be...

There is always process.  Defined processes are not necessarily better than
undefined processes.  However, I see this type of division of labor as
counter-productive, if a well-thought-out process is not in place and that
process must be well-defined.  I have worked in many places where the switch
from one system to another was mangled because there was not enough planning
put into processes before the switch occurred.

...How about a more flexible model--the one I suggested--where we take into
account the divers working styles, skill sets, and preferences of
individuals and allocate tasks accordingly, rather than insisting that there
is only one way to get the job done?...


I agree that there are many models to choose from, but usually a flexible
model is not one that companies choose.  I would not be interested in a
monolithic editor/publisher model, as I have said.  I am also opposed to a
no-style-manual model that allows every writer to style their own manual.  I
look at these as the two extremes.  Most companies seem to sit in the middle
somewhere:  a style manual exists, there may be an editor that acts as a
style enforcer or every writer might be expected to enforce the style
manual.

A model that lets each writer achieve and work at their own level of style,
skill, and preference might work in some corporate cultures.  Certainly, at
vidiom, we have experts in certain areas: driver docs, API docs, hardware
docs, exploding graphics, graphic design, etc. BUT, everyone is expected to
know how to do most everything, so as to avoid single point failures if
"experts" quit.  We have active mentoring on most all products to spread the
knowledge.  This does not pre-suppose your work model, but I am not sure how
one would work in a journalism model of writers and publishing editors with
some but not all writers.

Obviously, Judy will have to find her own way in her company.

walden


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