Re: Do tech writers write Engineering test reports?

[Tony Chung <tonyc -at- tonychung -dot- ca>]

One tech writer at a semiconductor company I worked at was an engineer who
set up a test bench to confirm the specifications, almost like a QA, while
writing the docs.

Personally, even though I'm a developer, I don't test on behalf of the QA.
QA does their QA for their reasons. Any tests I run are primarily to
simulate the user experience, so that I can guide them through the process
and identify any "gotchas". Sometimes this level helps to identify
confusing workflows, and push the developers to improve the interface.

But then, as with all things in this industry, "it depends". You do what
the work needs, and prove yourself a valuable problem solver. Can't
guarantee it will work out for you, but chances are the management are just
trying to figure out what to do with you.

-Tony


On Thu, May 8, 2014 at 1:14 PM, Debra Kahn <kahndebra -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:

> Ah, but there is a third possibility: There are lots of new products being
> designed at the same time; the test engineers are swamped; management
> thinks their time is better spent testing than writing - and tech writers
> are less expensive than engineers anyway.
>
> That said, the engineers are concerned about accuracy (and most likely
> about having to spend as much time explaining to me as they would filling
> out my test report template - but, really, I'm pretty bright (!))
> DK
>
> *Debra Kahn**, MA, PMP, CA-AM*
> debra -at- dk-consulting -dot- co *or *kahndebra -at- gmail -dot- com
> Business: 970-541-0888
> http://dk-consulting.co
>
>
>
>
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