Re: Programmers as writers

[Sella Rush <sellar -at- APPTECHSYS -dot- COM>]

 >but I don't think our clients should be
>wasting money paying a programmer to write.

This may be your most powerful argument.  It would not work well for me
because I make about the same as the junior-mid programmers who would get
saddled with this task.  And the amount of time I would need to spend with
them gathering information would further erode any advantage.

An alternative might be to provide the framework for programmers to plug in
their information.  This might involve doing a template or outline, maybe
just a sheet of guidelines that they can follow to make sure they address
all necessary issues (I assume this is what you meant by content issues).
And encouraging them to simply provide the information, and then hand off to
you to pull together into a coherent document.  Setting up a system like
this will, as always, take some up-front effort but may be worth it.

I frankly wouldn't presume to "let" or "not let" programmers do anything,
just as I would hate it if they decided to "not let" me read their source
code or make comments on their interfaces.  I've known programmers who enjoy
doing some writing, which I can certainly understand.  I've also known some
who hate it with a passion; these I make a point of helping out as much as
possible.

Sella Rush
mailto:sellar -at- apptechsys -dot- com
Applied Technical Systems (ATS)
Bremerton, Washington
Developers of the CCM Database


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