Re: Avoiding documentation bottlenecks while maintaining quality? (take II)

[Ned Bedinger <doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com>]

Geoff Hart wrote:
> 
> But at work, I 
> find it's misleading to give the quality triangle too much credibility. 
> When you buy into a dogma, you make it real. When you treat it as 
> something that can be subverted, you can make things change for the 
> better. 


I look at it this way:

When I'm given a schedule that isn't doable, I push it back to the one 
who has given it to me. If I don't push back, then it becomes 
increasingly my burden to meet that schedule.


If I pushed it back to you, you'd suggest that I do mitigation by 
subverting the quality triangle.

"OK," sez I, "but I am already optimized with my tools, reviewers, SMEs, 
and so forth.  All I can figure is that I either must work longer hours, 
or I will turn out unfinished documents, unless I hire some help. 
Subvert that for me, please?"

Don't feel bad if you can't subvert it. Tech writers have tried 
everything short of secretly taking half the work home (to be done by 
the spoouse and kids).  I've been around this block enough times to know 
what's going on here, and I frame this problem very effectively with the 
triangle. I will either need more time, or I'll need to offload some of 
the work, or I'll need to really lower the bar for what is acceptable. 
Mitigation, IMO, has zilch in the way of explanatory power or 
remediation to help me out, and I don't see how it will help me avoid 
getting into this situation again. But the Quality Tripod, that's a 
stool that will let me milk work for a lot of practical learning.

Ned Bedinger
doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com


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