Happy to be a Tech Writer?

[Mary Arrotti]

There are also writers who work for organizations with many products and who work on everything. So, they could have a broader instead of deeper understanding than the dev, qa, and support folks. Sometimes that's been my experience. People in the other groups may work on or support 1-2 products. So, they have more of a capacity to delve deeply & become more expert in fewer areas. 
   
  In this situation, a writer's contribution or specialized knowledge lies more in being able to compare products or functionality within a product. In a meeting for Product A if we're discussing adding a new reporting function - I can identify how we handle reporting for our other products. (Relevant since we want to standardize behavior & UI when possible.) The QA and support people who spend 50% of their time on Product A (vs. my 10%) do know more about Product A. But they may know little about Product B or C. 
   
  There are also instances where writers - because of the type of info we write & the way we present the info - may more easily pick up on procedural or UI differences within a specific product. 
   
  My deadlines sometimes occur before QA begins to test a specific feature. I wouldn't be the expect on the relevant feature but if I meet with a developer & then share my info/docs with QA or someone who will eventually support the feature - I do become a relative expert. For a brief time anyway :^).

Gene Kim-Eng <techwr at genek.com> wrote:
  I suspect that many of us who find ourselves in this position
are working in environments where there may not *be* 
"Eng-Test and QA and integration support people" who are
separate entities from whatever team the writers report to.....


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kevin McLauchlan" 
> I find it fascinating that a number of you seem to work in companies where
> the writer knows more about the overall product than the Eng-Test and QA and
> integration support people. 
 	 
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