Reviewers who don't review

[Gene Kim-Eng]

I think the reality in most organizations is that the individual contributor
tech writer is not empowered to do something like this and the tactic
needs to be applied by whoever that writer reports to.  Whoever does
it must also emphasize what I said in my previous post, that the
documentation is done but cannot be released because it has not been
*properly reviewed or verified,* so it is not the doc group that is causing
the schedule slip, but the document approvers and testers.

And yes, I probably should have mentioned it, but completion of docs
is a milestone on our development schedules and document reviews and
verification are milestones in our doc process.

Gene Kim-Eng


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <stevefjong at comcast.net>

> I also see an issue with the solution Gene offered (threaten to hold up 
> the
> release until the documentation is reviewed). This is a big stick, but is 
> it a
> real one? I've been in plenty of situations where the doc manager 
> (sometimes
> me) says, "We will never cause a schedule slip." That is in fact the
> mantra of most tech doc group. I've been to plenty of status meetings
> where--to mix my metaphor--every other group pulls that particular club 
> out of
> their bag, but never Documentation. Perhaps the writer who's too nice to 
> rat out
> his reviewer becomes the manager who's too accommodating to threaten to 
> hold up
> the release. But it's a big stick, isn't it? So, shouldn't we be using it?