Re: This too is technical communication

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

I think it is a common misconception that a small company that
does not implement the same solutions as General Motors or
the DoD must be "immature."  Not every small company aspires
to grow into a big company or to be bought by one someday.
I have seen more than one small company spend itself into the
ground trying to implement "big company" enterprise solutions
that they would never need.  Conversely, I have also seen
small companies outgrow their "small company" processes
and realize too late that they should have implemented ones
that were less dependent upon individuals working one-on-one.
I think that a key part, if not the biggest part, of "maturing" a
company is having a vision of where you want the company to
go and where you do not want it to go, and building infrastructure,
processes and knowledge sets that will get you there without
impeding progress or causing it to be distracted by the lure of
bright, shiny toys that don't do anything to advance your goals.

Gene Kim-Eng


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Troy Klukewich" <tklukewich -at- sbcglobal -dot- net>

> It also does not surprise me that a small company can in fact implement efficient documentation processes. In fact, smaller 
> companies should have an easier time implementing consistency versus larger companies with numerous competing agendas. It also 
> bodes well that efficiency allows more time to do other things in your case.
>
> The same principle works in larger companies. Only, so far all I've seen for many years is understaffed documentation groups 
> versus the size of the development team and the ever-expanding content domain. Implementing a more efficient documentation system 
> in these contexts means only that we have more time to work on content, our core competency, versus say formatting, DTP, or other 
> presentation type tasks.
>
> I do think your case is a rarity. Or maybe most small companies start with efficient documentation architectures and policies and 
> then get messy later with more people on board. I doubt it, though.

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