RE: Uncooperative SMEs

[John Posada <JPosada -at- book -dot- com>]

Forget what management buys into...they aren't because they don't see the
value in it. Even if you see it, they don't, so change that. Management will
buy into anything that is of value to them, nothing that isn't. You may see
the value, but so what?

I replaced a technical writer who had been at one of our branch locations in
NJ for about 2 years. For all intents and purposes, he got nothing done in
that time. All I'd ever heard in NY was that the SMEs were uncooperative,
isolated, and just generally, bad quys.

What I found was just the opposite. From what I can tell, they didn't
cooperate with the writer because he didn't show them that he could return
as much or more benefit back to them as he took from them. He would grill
someone, leave with the information, ad they never saw him again on that
subject. They didn't know if what they told him was being portrayed
accurately, whether he was taking credit for knowing something that they
were expert in, who knows...

Try thinking along these lines...if their priority is to cover their butt,
what can you do with documentation that helps them accomplish this? What can
you do that will make their job easier? Make it seem that along with the
other reasons you are doing docs, one of your focuses  (foci?) is to
document things FOR them. Figure out how you can do something that makes
their live easier or showcase what they're doing so everyone else can see
how good they are....not how good you are. make it seem it is about THEM!

Pictures. I've had good luck with pictures...flowcharts...BIG
flowcharts..diagrams. Turn their processes into big, splashy, attractive
flowcharts and hang them everywhere. At my place, you cannot walk down an
aisles in the developer's area without seeing flowcharts pinned to the
outside of their cubes.

Don't sit there and moan poor me, they don't see my value. Make it so
obvious that they'd be blind if they didn't. You had a quote from Miles.
"I'm always thinking about creating...."  Read it carefully. Think of how
you can create value. If you build it, they will come.

John Posada
Senior Technical Writer
Barnes&Noble.com
jposada -at- book -dot- com
212-414-6656
icq: 178047452
aim: jposada1
  "When you only have two minutes to do 
  something that takes three, wait until you have three"




-----Original Message-----
From: tgr -at- lanminds -dot- com [mailto:tgr -at- lanminds -dot- com]
Sent: Thursday, March 20, 2003 2:30 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Uncooperative SMEs

Comrades,

At my company, which shall remain nameless, there is almost no buy-in from 
department heads on the issue of SME cooperation. In fact, tech writers are 
expected to be seen but not heard from as much as possible. Everyone is too 
busy covering their ass to spend time with tech writers or review 
documentation.

Any success dealing with SMEs must come on the basis of personal 
initiative, ingenuity, charm, back-scratching and arm-twisting. Does anyone 
else out there in tech writer land deal with a similar environment? If so, 
how do you stay productive, get the information you need, get reviews done 
in a timely fashion, and so forth? Would love to hear your suggestions.


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