Re: Hi-Tech Company Hasn't Used Tech Writers in Years (Long and V ERY Worth It)

["Gene Kim-Eng" <techwr -at- genek -dot- com>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <googlesnatcher -at- hotmail -dot- com>

> The idea that firing the tech pubs people is a security measure is utter
> hogwash. How does one secure information by firing the people who wrote
> about it?

By reducing the number of people who have access to it.  Instead of an
SME, writer, editor and possibly a DTP operator, there is now an SME
and a writer/editor whose job it is to correct the SME's grammar and
spelling.

However, it is far more likely that the Pubs dept was eliminated to reduce
costs, or because their insistence on taking charge of documents they were
not in charge of just ticked someone off.

> Actually, this proves Ms. Miller's points. Now we know exactly why she is
> frustrated - he indicates in his own words that General Dynamics managers
> consider it normal to treat technical writers like peons. EVERY technical
> writer I've ever listened to, read material from, or corresponded with,
> wanted very deeply to be involved in the development process right from
> day one, for exactly the same reasons that Ms. Miller mentioned. But this
> guy thinks it makes sense to exclude from the process the one person who
> is best qualified to spot flaws in the design documents - maybe this is
> why General Dynamics is infamous for cost overruns.

My recollection is that a lot of it had to do with constantly having to go back
to the beginning and start over again because some influential senator or
representative threatened to block the funding unless part of the contract was
awarded to companies in his district.  But that's just my experience.

> "It" was already paid for. Ms. Miller indicated it was already in place
> and in use in previous days. She wrote about it being taken off, not about
> having a battle trying to get the funding to get it put on. Again, either
> he has missed the point or he is trying to misdirect us away from the
> point. The fact that he can spout reams of irrelevant info about ancient
> software and the development of FrameMaker is not corroboration - it is
> either the inability to choose samples that are relevant to his point, or
> it is an attempt to confuse and stun the audience by burying them under a
> (insert_word_here)load of extraneous information.

The elimination of FM was most likely an integral part of redirecting the
documentation production stream away from tech writers and onto SMEs,
with tech writers serving as editors and production support.  This,
incidentally, was the way it was always done up until the mid-1980's or
so.  Someone just decided the new way wasn't cutting it.

> I have never before read anything so jaw-droppingly astounding as this.
> Obviously the writer either does not realize or has chosen to ignore that
> he is claiming the manager should not have to live in the real world. The
> writer and the manager both need to get it through their heads that the
> manager is not a lifer. He is an EX-lifer. He is NOT in the Marines, Ms.
> Miller is NOT in the Marines, and she is NOT subject to the UCMJ. The
> problem here is not that Ms. Miller isn't working in the right way. She is
> working in the right way. She's working like what she is: a civilian tech
> writer who is trying to be as useful as she can be. One problem is, the
> manager is a civlian too and refuses to admit it. The manager is obviously
> not competent or not willing to recognize that his employment has changed
> and that he needs to change to fit it. The other problem is that the
> writer wants the reader to believe is sensible for the manager to try to
> live in the past. This response was a milestone in unreality.

This is probably the single most important difference between the way things
are done in the defense industry and the commercial sector.  That "ex-lifer"
probably got his/her (yes, there are women in these positions) after spending
the last 5 or 10 years of his/her 20 as a high-ranking staff member of the very
service office or agency that is evaluating the contractor's deliverables, and
knows exactly what the evaluators will and will not emphasize in accepting
or rejecting the work.  Civilian companies servicing the military are chock
full of ex-service people, many of them of relatively high rank, and they often
closely resemble military service offices.  The culture follows the people in
charge.  Ms. Miller's boss is *still* a "lifer," because he's *still*
interacting
with military personnel, procedures and culture on an almost daily basis (that's
what the company hired him to do), and the objectives he lays out for his
employees and the environment he cultivates in his section are always going
to reflect that.  This is one of the biggest reasons why people who work in
military contractors and commercial companies often have difficulty
transitioning back and forth between the two environments.  They are both
"real worlds," with their own "realities," and different ways of doing things,
and the two are often wildly incompatible with one another.

Gene Kim-Eng



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