Organizational Structure - Long

[Tammy Sudol <tammy -at- M3ISYSTEMS -dot- QC -dot- CA>]

I have been following this thread with interest.  I work in a company in
which the writers are decentralized and have been for the last 2 years.
Before this restructuring, I worked as part of a team in the documentation
department.

I prefer to work in the department for which I am documenting the product.
I find that I am respected more, as the programmers have worked with me for
many long hours, project after project. They've seen my brilliance and
they've seen my mistakes.

My product knowledge has grown and I am now asked to help design the
software and give valued opinions.  Since I'm physically in the department,
I overhear the programmers discussing up-to-date information (modifications,
bugs) concerning our product.  This cuts down on those unexpected surprises.
One thing that I've also noticed is that my working equipment has greatly
improved.  Did you ever notice how nice the equipment is on which
programmers work?  Well, when your manger is use to ordering this nice
equipment regularly, s/he doesn't hesitate to sign your purchase order and
the higher ups don't single you out because of your position.

Lastly, I'm assigned a deadline and as long as I make my deadline, I could
hang from the ceiling.

The cons:
=>My boss is a programmer and doesn't know a lot about documentation.  I've
been trying to teach him (sob!) gently.
=> I wear all the hats: editor, proof-reader, and so on.  I have to be VERY
careful.

On the other side of the coin...

When I worked in the documentation department, the writers all sat in the
same area.  Usually, the product was not loaded onto my machine, and I was
expected to go to the department and use a programmer's computer (of course,
s/he was working on it at the same time - ugh!).  Although I developed good
working relationships with the programmers, I was not one of them and they
still treated me the same as a guest and were never really sure what my job
entailed. I often heard about comments being made as to the fact that we
looked like we weren't working (somethings we weren't -- we were waiting for
a computer and a programmer <grin>).  I got the feeling that they didn't
value my work and regarded our sessions as intrusions into their valuable
time.

The higher ups questioned every equipment requisition, almost as if we were
ordering space shuttle equipment.

The pros:
=> more variety.
=> if you didn't like the programmer, you could tell yourself, "This will be
over soon."



************************************************
Tammy Sudol
Technical Writer - MOSAIC Department
M3i Systems Inc.
tammy -at- m3isystems -dot- qc -dot- ca
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