Re: Order Amongst Chaos (venting)

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

My worthless input:

Most organizations have no structure, no method, and no process - they have
the illusion of these things to satisfy those that like method, process, and
structure.

In my experience successful organizations have clearly defined goals and
murky procedures.  They know exactly what they want to achieve, they are not
always sure how to get there.  Part of getting there is figuring out the way
to get there.  It seems foolish, even dangerous to assume you can pick one,
defined, static path to achieve a goal.

A wee tale:  once upon a time in a far away land known as SILICON VALLEY a
duo of total losers went out and bought a pile of chips.  They did not have
a spec, a procedural reference manual, or any hint of a review committee.
They had a garage, a soldering iron, and some good ideas.  They knew exactly
what they wanted to make, and they went after that dream night and day.
These two dorks had a lot of verve and a little nerve.  The thin one was
Jobs and he managed to convince the titanium spines of venture capital to
hand him a buck to make his dream come true.  The other was Woz and he was a
dweeb with a brain.  He managed to engineer his platinum genius into silicon
and make the Earth's first (serious) personal computer.  And they did all of
this without ever, once writing up a spec.

How did ol' Jobs and Woz do it?  They stuck to their goals and visions.
Rather then plot one, static path to success, they plotted a point in the
future and shot at it with their genius.

I have never, not even once, seen a company keep their specs updated.  I
have worked in 100's of different high tech companies and not even once have
I see good specs.  A spec is most often an exploration process.  It is a
time when the engineers explore the technology.  By the time they are
actually coding, building, and implementing - the spec is a long forgotten
memory.  This is not because of incompetence or laziness -- it is because
halting people in mid-stream while they are designing and creating solutions
to go a peck out their ideas in a document is astronomically frustrating to
those people who are "do"-centric.

Thus, I have found in my experience (that means this is an opinion and not a
fact), that the best tech pubs groups work very, very closely with their
engineering counterparts.  The writers should be closely involved in the
process of development including helping test and troubleshoot the product
and procedures.  I like to call this little spark of tepid intelligence -
integration.  A tech pubs group should be completely integrated into the
development, marketing, and implementation process.

Integration means paying attention and listening to what everyone is doing.
Assuming that those people in another group have their tech docs handled is
probably the largest mistake you can make.  It also means operating like a
service organization.  You are there to service the needs of the project.
The need is docs.  The resource is information in an engineer's brain.  You
need to pry that info out of his/her brain and serve it up all warm and
yummy in a gently poached document.

Unfortunately, some tech pubs groups are run and staffed by segregationists.
People who want to keep a nice, thick wall between themselves and those
engineering people and marketing people.  Hence, this may be why you feel
like the lone island of sanity.  If you wall yourself off from the rest of
the group -- no one will pay attention to your requests.  And likewise, your
loss of visibility behind the wall ensure you that people won't think about
you until the last moment.  Tear down the wall and interface with everyone.

The last nugget-o-knowledge here is good old respect.  People will do what
you ask if they respect you (duh).  Respect is earned, never given.  I
guarantee you, 100 billion percent that asking engineers to stop what they
are doing (tinkering) and sit down and update docs (torture to an engineer)
will earn you immediate and lasting disrespect.  Engineers like writers that
write and do the crap they hate.  Engineers loathe writers that have long
winded policies and procedures.  Hence, behave like you are there to service
them.  It is a small amount of humility that can go a long way toward
getting you the respect you want.

The best tech pubs groups I have seen are (like ol Jobs and Woz) "goal
oriented" and "solution focused" (ahh, that class in Conversational
Consultantese is paying off).  They set the goal for a project and shoot at
it constantly revising solutions as the playing field changes.  The long and
short of it is, you do what it takes to meet your goals (short of committing
capital felonies).  If writing the whole doc set in piglatin using
BlatherMaster 1.0 for the Commodore 64 will meet the goal -- then by golly
you better go get some Commodores. Everything, and I mean everything, is up
for modification to meet goals.  The goals should be simple, clear, and
concise, like this:

Example Goal:  We will document the FrizBlap Server in one month and provide
a comprehensive function reference for the support people.  The docs will
use FrameWhacker for UNIX and be printed on some semi-white paper lying in
the copier room.

Simple.  Now, everything should point toward meeting that goal.  Anything
that detracts from meeting that goal is bad.  Anything that speeds you
toward that goal is good.  If upgrading to FrameCracker 9.0 for Weasels NT
will get you to the goal faster - do it.  Every moment spent conjecturing is
a moment lost toward meeting your goals.

I believe that a tech pubs group should be solution-centric, service
oriented, and deeply integrated into the flow of the company.



----STANDARD DISCLAIMER-----

These are merely my thoughts and nothing more.  There are no deeply hidden
drug influenced agendas in this message.  No technical communications
professionals were harmed in the writing of this message.  All you need is
love.  I want to believe.  FrameWhacker for UNIX is a not a trademark of
anything.  90 days same as cash.  Everytime I think of you I feel a shot
right though until a bolt of blue.  On approved credit.  No pets. All
technical writers knowingly or unknowingly referenced in this posting are
free to get up and move about the cabin.  Exit to the rear.   Restrooms for
patrons only.  Have a nice day.  Eat more fish.  The truth is out there,
because it sure as hell isn't in here.

- Andrew Plato