What and Why (was Nazi Rhetoric)

[Chuck Banks <chuck -at- ASL -dot- DL -dot- NEC -dot- COM>]

Simon,

        You missed an opportunity to excell.  You should have stepped
to the fore and produced instructions for modifying their 50 Hz
computers to run in a 400 Hz aircraft environment using existing
materials.

        Improvise, Man, adapt, overcome!  Semper Paratus!  8^)

        Seriously, Simon, that's why such exercises are necessary.
They're opportunities to verify the documentation, whether published
military manuals or dashed off operations orders.  The 'someone's
son and heir' who sent you out with inadequate preparation deserves
thirty of 'the best.'  But, we civilians are not quite so physically
liable for the results of our efforts.  Perhaps that's why so many
manuals arrive in the customer's hand without being verified; no
sense of responsibility to the customer.

        As technical communicators we are often the foremost
advocates of the customer's view and interests.  If we don't push
for verification, or do the necessary verification inadequately,
like the errant individual who sent you out with online software,
we should expect a flood of after-action reports (customer
comments forms -- you DO provide those with every document,
don't you?) filled with complaints.

        The customer may not ALWAYS be right, be he/she should
ALWAYS come first!

        (We pause for the writer to wipe his brow.)

Thus endeth todays tirade.

Best Regards,

Chuck Banks
--
__        ________     ______
|\\   |  ||          //              Chuck Banks
| \\  |  ||_______  ||               Senior Technical Writer
|  \\ |  ||         ||               NEC America, Inc.
|   \\|   \\______   \\______        E-Mail:      chuck -at- asl -dot- dl -dot- nec -dot- com
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