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Subject:Re: Systems documents From:Christopher Knight <knight -at- ADA -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 30 Jul 1997 10:18:26 PDT
It's true that most of us work in a situation where, as Katherin King
says "The software developers write the design/functional specs, which
I use as the foundation for user documentation." However, let's not make
a virtue out of necessity. Perhaps, instead of conceiving things as "we
have too many other issues to deal with without also having to deal with
the nuts and bolts within engineering", we might gain a lot from being
involved in ther production of engineering documents (not the
engineering itself). I had the experience of working that way with one
client, and the advantages were: (1) The engineering docs gained
readability, and thus were taken more seriously by the engineers.
(2) The engineers saw tech writers as helping solve THEIR problems
(document design, audience anaalysis, gaining clarity etc.), which
made them more receptive to what we needed from them, and built a team
atmosphere. (3) I got an early look at the design objectives, new
technical terms etc., which made my learning curve flatter for the
project. (4) I got to tighten up the writing or diagrams that often
found its way later into my manuals. All in all, a good thing.
As to not having enough time to do all this, the net effect was that the
company hired another tech writer, so I wasn't the Lone Writer anymore!
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