Re: SMEs/QA don't have time to review the documentation

[SB <sylvia -dot- braunstein -at- gmail -dot- com>]

Thanks to all for your feedback. So I got management in the loop and they
are doing something about it now.

On 5/30/08, Victoria Wroblewski <victoria -dot- wroblewski -at- eagletest -dot- com> wrote:
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: SB
> Sent: Friday, May 30, 2008 7:24 AM
> To: TECHWR-L
> Subject: SMEs/QA don't have time to review the documentation
>
> > I would like to know how you are getting the material when doing the
> > technical writing and how it should be done.
>
> In addition to all the great comments on getting upper management behind
> you (which you need), you also need to convince upper management and
> everyone below that it's part of everyone's job to review the materials
> and *hopefully* catch all the mistakes, but to be aware that there will
> occasionally be ones that slip through.
>
> When I've worked in places where reviewers won't review, there is
> usually a very large fear that if you're the one responsible for the
> review of a doc, you're on the line if something comes up wrong.  Some
> people think it's safer to just claim they don't have time to review at
> all so how could they have caught anything, rather than reviewing and
> hopefully catching at least the major errors.  Mistakes happen, no one
> person or system is perfect.  But when everyone is working with
> confidence that others are doing what they should be with reviews, the
> mistakes tend to be smaller and nothing that impacts revenue.
>
> I've also noticed SME's tend to loosen up when you explain that you are
> looking for review on the technical accuracy ONLY.  For some reason
> (maybe previous bad tech writers) they think they have to review it's
> their own college term paper.  You need to convince them that it's your
> job to make sure every comma is where it should be etc., and their job
> to make sure you are not saying anything that is technically wrong or
> misleading.
>
> - Victoria
>
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