Re: What do you call them?

Subject: Re: What do you call them?
From: Fabien Vais <phantoms -at- ACCENT -dot- NET>
Date: Tue, 5 Aug 1997 12:57:33 -0400

I agree with Kevin's dilemna. I have often had the same kind of problem,
both working on a contract basis and full-time. It used to anger me that
people were taking a DRAFT copy that I handed in, and using it as a FINAL
copy. I too started to print DRAFT COPY on the cover, and even in the
footers, etc. One day, I I got so mad that I even overprinted DRAFT in very
light grey diagonally across every single page of a manual. Till the day I
was told to remove everything. They said "they knew it was a draft, that I
didn't have to worry about anything, etc." So I stopped. What the hell, if
they want it that badly, let them have it!

But the thought has remained in my mind. Today, I usually tell (just
verbally or by e-mail) my clients VERY CLEARLY that what I'm handing in is a
DRAFT copy, that I haven't had a chance to do a final edit of the text, that
running the spellchecker is never enough, that there are probably still
inconsistencies, and that I don't consider this a FINAL COPY, etc. If after
being told this, they give me back the text for me to "complete" it, great!
If not, too bad for them. I've decided that I won't lose sleep over it anymore.

Curious to know what others have to say about this situation.

Fabien Vais
phantoms -at- accent -dot- net

At 08:29 AM 8/5/97 MST, Kevin wrote:
> Another question. I am in a weird situation where I work, as a
> subcontractor at Motorola's IRIDIUM project. The basic philosophy of
> documentation since I started here is "Just get the documents out
> there for people to look at."
>
> I hate this philosophy because it does not lend itself to getting the
> document properly reviewed by the SME, other people who use it,
> managers, what have you. So, documents get "released" to people that
> are not very good, for whatever the reason. There was no process of
> how to get signatures, approvals, reviews, what have you.
>
> Therefore, when I started, I started to put "DRAFT COPY" on the
> document's cover page and footers. I made it clear that I was not
> happy the documents were not being reviewed and signed off (which is
> weird, because everyone here sees the need for documentation, I guess
> just not good documentation), and until that happened, the documents
> would remain a DRAFT COPY.
>
> Well, yesterday, the question came up in a staff meeting from the
> group manager why the documents are called DRAFT. Which got me
> thinking. Perhaps the words DRAFT COPY were not appropriate in this
> situation because many of the documents are completed, just not
> inspected. I have been tossing around terms in my mind like:
>
> 1. unapproved
> 2. prerelease
>
> You get the idea. I was wondering what my peers call documents that
> have been "released" but not officially approved.
>
> Please rely off-line and if there is sufficient desire, I will post a
> summary. Thanks in advance

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