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> Another Plato rant against writers. I really wonder sometimes if he actually
> writes, considering that his attitude towards his own profession is so
> disdainful - and every now and then, I get tired of him bashing us with his
> generalities.
Its not disdainful, its real. When somebody tells me that the reason docs are
bad is because of processes, methods, or some other external source - I laugh.
These are excuses. Amateurs and bureaucrats make up excuses. Professionals
accept responsibility, fix the mistakes, and move on with life.
And yes, I write all the time. I just am not a "technical writer" by title any
longer.
And if you're tired of feeling bashed, then delete my posts on sight.
Why is it that the people who are constantly reminding the list of how tired
they are of my ideas always seem to have an unlimited amount of energy to argue
against me and belittle me. Apparently, your exhaustion with my ideas isn't
very serious, because you have plenty of energy to point out how exhausted you
are.
> Inaccuracies are the fault of the writer and/or editor. That much I agree
> with. But 99.99% of the inaccuracies are *not* the fault of lack of
> knowledge. Rather, it is because the company rushes through development,
> doesn't give the writers access to the software under development, and
> expects us to have the documentation complete in cycle with the final
> product.
Excuses, excuses, excuses. "We didn't get access and therefore we couldn't do
good work." Bah. Its a writer's responsibility to get the information they
need, by hook or by crook.
People build processes because it gives them something else to blame, rather
than themselves. Every process, procedure, or methodology created in the entire
history of humanity is exactly as useful as the people using it. That means,
when things go wrong, it is the people who are to blame, not the process.
Thus, if an employer is "rushing through the development" then the writer
should also be rushing through getting the information. Just because work is
done in a chaotic manner, doesn't mean its now okay to produce crummy docs. It
Chaos or lame planning doesn't suddenly give you a blank check to do a crappy
job. More specifically, just because other people are doing shoddy work,
doesn't mean its okay for you to do shoddy work.
> The developmental cycle should not be based on the programmers job - that is
> just one step in the process (another word Andrew hates)...a really good
> developmental cycle will build in time for, at the very least, beta testing.
> It should also have some time for real-world testing too. This time is often
> considered an unacceptable cost, so all stages are lumped together. The
> results are always going to include buggy software, since the code was never
> really run before putting things out in the real world, and inaccurate
> documentation, since things will change the moment the "design plan" is sent
> to the writer.
Again, all of this boils down to people, their skills, temperament, and
capabilities. Smart, skilled people know how to make it happen, even under less
than ideal conditions. Font-fondlers collapse and make up excuses.
Andrew Plato
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