TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: Doing New Things New Ways From:Caryn Rizell <caryn -at- HPPTC95 -dot- ROSE -dot- HP -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 14 Jul 1994 14:16:54 PDT
Re: writer as developers
It was mentioned that if writers are to be on design teams,
management needs to give the writers more time to complete
a project. Actually, in my experience, being on the design
team allowed us to finish sooner than if we had just jumped
in toward the end.>
More time was spent up front learning about the product,
writing specs, and analyzing the interface, but this
saved bundles of time at the end finding bugs and interface
issues that had to be dealt with in the docs.
It was certainly much easier to write the docs from
specs than from an untested product. I could write about
what the product was supposed to do, then just fill in with
the screens when they were available.
What management needs to be aware of is that when writers
are helping with design, they are actually spending less
time 'writing' and more time creating the product.
Caryn Rizell
caryn -at- hpptc95 -dot- rose -dot- hp -dot- com
