RE: How to keep going once the honeymoon's over ....

[Shea Michael EXT <Michael -dot- Shea -dot- extern -at- icn -dot- siemens -dot- de>]

Laura,

Here are a couple more options. 

Go and talk to everybody and not just in the engineering team or development team. You find some of the best information in the supporting services. For example: marketing should be defining what the product is supposed to do and why it should do it. Technical support quickly finds out where the problems are and often know how to use the product. Manufacturing or whoever assembles the thing know what parts go into it. These people also know key people within other organizations that have valuable information. I try to find a couple people who can supply me with basic information. These people can often direct me towards people with more specific information. Go ask Rutgers about the voltage range. A couple interviews with Rutgers will tell me if this person can be asked basic information as well or if I should just come with very specific and hopefully intelligent questions.

Talk to your manager. Let him or her know that you are finding it difficult to get adequate information. Ask for suggestions as to who to talk to or where written documentation might exist. Sounds like you have already exhausted this option, though. Only after you have tried this would I go to your manager and say that group x is either actively or passively refusing to cooperate with you. It looks a lot better if you can overcome this problem yourself, but if there is a fundamental communication break down, it may have to go through the management chain.

Talk to the manager of the subject matter experts. Tell the manager that you are looking for information on product x and ask who would be the best source. Then go to that person and say that manager smith said that you should talk to him or her about product x. If the SME still doesn't provide information, you can ask for suggestions as to who to talk to or go back to the SME manager and say that the SME doesn't have time or you didn't respond or whatever the excuse is and ask for another contact.

In any case, be sure to cover your behind. Send out reviews with threats like, no answer will be taken as approval of the document. Keep your distribution lists and the responses or lack there of in case people come back later and accuse you of publishing without getting the information reviewed. It might also be a good idea to remind those people who didn't answer that you were hoping for one. Sometimes people have told me that they forgot or didn't have time, but could they just have extra time.

Otherwise the others who have responded have good suggestions as well. I sympathize with you. Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt.

Michael Shea
XpressLink Documentation
c/o ICN AS BA ST2

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Michael Shea
ROSEMANN & LAURIDSEN GMBH
Am Schlossberg 14, D-82547 Eurasburg, Germany

Phone: +49 8179 9307-19, Fax: +49 8179 9307-12
E-Mail: shea -at- r-l -dot- de, Web: www.r-l.de
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