Systems documents: Summary

[Ron Sering CDS <ronaldse -at- MANX -dot- CDS -dot- TEK -dot- COM>]

Thank you to all who responded. Here is a summary of what I received:

The general consensus is that working on the systems docs would make transferring the design specs to user information more efficient and effective. It also could enhance my standing with the engineers. BUT (as PeeWee Herman once said, "everybody has a big but.") these responsibilities could take away time from development of the user information and may  even be in the bailiwick of the project manager rather than the tech writer. It could also take away time from improving the end product: the publications themselves. (It was suggested that I could allow my to-do list to be overloaded, and then ask for more help....hmmm.)

I guess I'd conclude that doing the system docs would not be the End of Life as We Know It, but that maybe I need to focus on some of the other key issues mentioned in my earlier posting *first.* I might reach a compromise in which I participate in organizing the design documents so that they track more closely to the manual and/or online help, and spend the rest of my time on the publications. And, as always, one has to communicate those key issues to management...

Thanks!

Ron Sering-not-Serling

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