Re: The Holy Wars -- LAME!

[Andrew Plato <aplato -at- EASYSTREET -dot- COM>]

Wow, this really has sparked a lot of responses (I've received about 45
private emails since this morning).  Its a good thing I am offline today and
not at a client site.

I just wanted to say that I too feel like I did the right thing, but it was
not without feeling icky.  It is hard when a client asks for my opinion, but
I know some people don't want to hear it.  In my defense, they asked for my
opinion and a recommendation.  I was well and good to stay out of the wars.
I have seen lots of companies become paralyzed with holy wars and it is
really pathetic.  I usually just stay out of the way when I am contracting
and let the full-timers duke it out.

As it was, this client decided to standardize simply based on costs and
portability needs.  I did not encourage them to standardize to Word.  The
decision was already made before I got there.  I just supported that
decision.

Thanks again for the input everyone.

-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew Plato <aplato -at- easystreet -dot- com>
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.techwr-l
Date: Wednesday, January 07, 1998 9:06 PM
Subject: The Holy Wars -- LAME!


>You know, I am getting a little tired of the tech writer holy wars.  I have
>one that just started at a client's site.   It is a Word/Frame war and it
is
>really pathetic. Both are good tools -- but to stake your entire career
>around one tool.  Sheesh, how lame can you be?
>
>At this client site, they decided to standardize to Word.  All of the
>engineers, marketing people, etc. used Word for all the internal docs so it
>seemed natural to do everything in Word.  Since they produce pretty simple
>documentation and help files, I thought it was a good idea and started
>helping them design some templates and such. Word is a pretty good tool.
>Frame is too.  Both have their strengths and weaknesses.  For this company,
>Word seemed like a good choice.  They were not doing really large documents
>and needed portability between other departments (which know nothing about
>Frame).
>
>Then this one lazy, worthless jerk who works there got his panties in an
>enormous bunch because he will ONLY use Frame.  You can imagine what
>happened next.  The sides squared off and here I was, the lone consultant
>stuck in the middle while these morons spent countless afternoons debating
>and NOT WORKING.
>
>So I went to the upper management and, in my best consulting voice, told
>them they had a full scale insurrection happening with the tech pubs
>department.  Naturally, the big guys asked for my opinion.
>
>I told them to lay down the law and make it final: that the company had
made
>a business decision to standardize to one tool and one platform.  I told
>them that this decision was made on both technological and economic
factors.
>That the inconvenience of converting to a single tool was minor in
>comparison to the benefits.  I also warned them that the Fundie-Framers
>would seethe and they would probably rebel with bad productivity.
>
>Then I gave my regular line about technology holy wars:  holy wars are
>destructive to an organization.  They cause people to waste time on useless
>debating and arguing. Moreover, a holy warn can divide a team and cause
>miscommunication and resentment.  This leads to bad products and lost
>profits.  My suggestion was to deal with the instigators very sternly.  The
>company must make it clear that the personal opinions regarding technology,
>however well supported, are to be kept personal once a decision is made.
>That personal preferences about technology and tools will be met when
>appropriate, but the first priority was producing good documents and good
>products.  I also suggested that they keep the most vocal opponents in
>positions where they have little authority.
>
>The company seems to be following what I suggested. They had a long talk
>with that one guy who was driving me nuts.  I think they sort of laid it on
>the line with him -- either play ball or strike out.  Ha has kind of
quieted
>down ever since the talk.
>
> Sheesh, when is this dipstick going to learn that tools do not produce
good
>documentation -- good writers do.  A good writer can produce useful
>documents with any tool.
>
>Well, what do you think?  Did I do the right thing by telling the mangers
to
>crush the holy war people?  I feel kind of icky about being the guy who
told
>them to reprimand these people.  I feel like a nark.
>
>But, I also think that the holy war crap is really, really lame.  Come on,
>are we professionals or are we cult members?
>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>Andrew Plato
>Owner / Principal Consultant
>Anitian Technology Services
>www.anitian.com
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>
>
>