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Re: Blurring the line between writer and engineer

Subject: Re: Blurring the line between writer and engineer
From: Gene Kim-Eng <techwr -at- genek -dot- com>
To: Rick Lippincott <rjl6955 -at- gmail -dot- com>, TECHWR-L Writing <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2015 16:33:37 -0800

Never.

In every manufacturing environment I've ever worked in, engineering changes have had to go through an ECO process that required sign-offs by design, manufacturing, safety, quality, etc., before they could be approved, and nobody - including the engineers - would have the authority to make changes or make promises to anyone that changes would be made. You could initiate a "customer request" change proposal that would kick off the ECO process, but anyone working with the customer in the field (engineer, service tech, marketing rep or, yes, technical writer) could do that.

Gene Kim-Eng



On 12/14/2015 3:41 PM, Rick Lippincott wrote:


In some previous jobs, though, I've found myself in a position
(typically while on some sort of hardware trial out in the field)
where the customer has said "In order for us to sign off on this, we
need you to mark up the changes to the engineering drawing here, and
give us your assurance that these changes will be incorporated." (This
has lead to a couple of interesting conversations on my return where
I've had to go to engineers and say "Well, I made a couple of changes
in your design, and here they are...and no, you don't have any choice
but to accept them.")

Two questions, just out of curiosity:

* For hardware tech writers (especially large "heavy metal" writers),
do you find that you're doing this...frequently? Rarely? Ever?

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Blurring the line between writer and engineer: From: Rick Lippincott

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