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Subject:Re: Personal Quality Standards From:John Posada <jposada -at- NOTES -dot- CC -dot- BELLCORE -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 15 Oct 1996 14:31:47 -0400
Brent...
Who's standards. Perhaps they are being writen to someone's standards. It
just happens to be the standards of the person with the money.
How lucky you are to always write according to your standards, which I'm sure
are the highest possible. Maybe my standards are to have my wife weigh more
than 80 pounds through the luxury of eating a couple of time per day, my
standards are to allow my kids to go to school with two shoes on without their
toes sticking out, and to drive an automobile that is less than 30 years old.
Which standards are more important...health and quality of life...or a document
that I could have gotten paid on if only I hadn't felt so strongly about having
my right margins justified, and because the customer wanted ragged right
margins, I told him to shove it. After all, ragged right margins are beneath
my personal standards.
John Posada
--------------------------------
My feeling is that if you ignore your own personal standards just because
you made a bad decision on the original deal, you don't *have* any personal
standards. "Things I do only when convenient or when they don't impact my
profit" and "personal standards" are not analogous phrases.
cheers,
brent
bjones -at- igs -dot- com
----------
From: TECHWR-L
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Re: Personal Quality Standards
Date: Tuesday, October 15, 1996 09.26PM
I disagree with those who say you should go ahead and spend the time
writing to your standards. That's the way to drive yourself nuts, as a
consultant, I think. How about rewriting a portion of the manual (one
section--one chapter?) to your standards and showing it to your client,
illuminating the differences for them. Then quote them the rate to get
the whole thing done that way. Give them a choice and live with the one
they make. After all, the thing really, when you're in business, is
_not_ the quality of your work in your eyes, but the quality in the
_customer's_ eyes. One thing I'm finally learning, after a lot of years
in the business, is that, sometimes, my idea of quality is simply not
cost-effective for a company. I'm finally seeing a little bigger
picture, and taking pride in being able to give them the best they can
get for the amount they are willing to spend.
Karla McMaster, technical writer
CTI PET Systems, Inc., Knoxville, TN
mcmaster -at- cti-pet -dot- com
