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If ALL of your time is scheduled, then something is wrong with the process. If you need to get different perspectives, then that time should be included as part of the the tasks. A documentation task should include research, writing, and review time. And the writer should do the estimates, which by the way, are not written in stone...or they shouldn't be.
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> Amen brother.
>
> the third question I'd ask, is" How do you block in the work of a documenter/tech writer, which is a reiterative process, involves levels of edit (or should), and global into a process that involves blocking in discrete items into a log, marking off each discrete item as it is done.
>
> God help you if while you are writing an "item, "you notice more needs to be done on it, or major editing of what is already there needs to be done.. The work of a tech writing PROFESSIONAL is to use your discretion and judgment to pull it all together to lead users to understanding. The more you dig the better your documentation. The more perspectives on the writing (marketing, training, the programmers) the better the documentation. But you can't do that, because your work is meted out in discrete items that are checked off on the backlog when done, for overall "completion" percentages.
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> M
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> --- On Wed, 12/2/09, Robert Lauriston <robert -at- lauriston -dot- com> wrote:
>
>
> From: Robert Lauriston <robert -at- lauriston -dot- com>
> Subject: Re: I'm now blogging about Agile & TW
> To: "TECHWR-L Writing" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
> Date: Wednesday, December 2, 2009, 9:49 AM
>
>
> My first question when dealing with that stuff was, how do you avoid
> tying the tech writer up in hours of brain-numbing discussion of
> coding details that are irrelevant to documentation?
>
> My second was, you call that disorganized mess Agile?
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> Are you looking for one documentation tool that does it all? Author,
> build, test, and publish your Help files with just one easy-to-use tool.
> Try the latest Doc-To-Help 2009 v3 risk-free for 30-days at:
>http://www.doctohelp.com/
>
> Help & Manual 5: The all-in-one help authoring tool. True single- sourcing --
> generate 8 different formats and as many different versions as you need
> from just one project. Fast and intuitive. http://www.helpandmanual.com/
>
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> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> Are you looking for one documentation tool that does it all? Author,
> build, test, and publish your Help files with just one easy-to-use tool.
> Try the latest Doc-To-Help 2009 v3 risk-free for 30-days at:
>http://www.doctohelp.com/
>
> Help & Manual 5: The all-in-one help authoring tool. True single- sourcing --
> generate 8 different formats and as many different versions as you need
> from just one project. Fast and intuitive. http://www.helpandmanual.com/
>
> ---
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Are you looking for one documentation tool that does it all? Author,
build, test, and publish your Help files with just one easy-to-use tool.
Try the latest Doc-To-Help 2009 v3 risk-free for 30-days at: http://www.doctohelp.com/
Help & Manual 5: The all-in-one help authoring tool. True single- sourcing --
generate 8 different formats and as many different versions as you need
from just one project. Fast and intuitive. http://www.helpandmanual.com/
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