RE: Address this. . .

["McLauchlan, Kevin" <Kevin -dot- McLauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com>]

Boudreaux, Madelyn subjected us to:
> 
> I write this partly tongue-in-cheek, in the vein (or maybe the key) of
> Friday...
> 
> It seems to me that "address" being taken to mean "fix" is a 
> case of the
> jargon chickens coming home to roost.
> 
> People used to call problems, bugs, etc, "problems," and 
> "bugs," and we
> "fixed" or "solved" them. But somewhere along the line, it was decided
> that we can't admit to having "problems" or "bugs," so we started
> calling them "issues." Or "opportunities," my *favorite*. 
> (Ooh, where's
> my sarcasm tag?) But you can't "fix" an issue, so we have to "address"
> it instead. 
> 
> So while we used to "fix bugs" and "solve problems," now we "address
> issues."
> 
> A customer who, presented with a list of "issues to be addressed," may
> be doing the wordmath in his or her head and thinking, "That must mean
> they're going to fix this bug." 

Do you think ANYbody but a techwriter -- or those weird 
folk over on CE-L actually thinks that way?  

:-)


Anyway, we use "issues" because it covers more than bugs, 
including feature requests, updates due to agency farts (*), 
EOL-related ... concerns, some others I can't recall just now. 

But then, look at the new post from Jeff S, two posts above 
yours, wherein he's having ... um... "some issues" with 
FrameMaker.  Not problems, though. 


Cheers,

 - Kevin

(* You know, when they roll over ponderously and expell some gas...)


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