Justification for hiring and realistic deadline - pls help.

[Mary Arrotti]

In a situation where documentation is viewed as not being important - the best solution may be getting management to sign off on fewer updates or on providing less detailed docs. Not something that might give you a lot of job satisfaction but - in the absence of hiring more help - could give you some of your life back & help you make deadlines. 
   
  If this might be the case, then I would approach this by telling your visiting mgt that you want to bring a problem to their attention. And then I would proceed with something like this...
   
  This is what we currently produce (what the current doc set is and what/how/when you update). For one writer to do this (even an experienced & productive writer like me) currently requires X hours a week and is likely to increase. We are in a situation where significant overtime is required just to meet our minimal requirements. This is dangerous. If anything unexpected happens - even something minor like I sprain my wrist or my hard drive crashes - then we will miss our deadlines. In order to continue to meet our deadlines, we need to either scale back on our doc offering or hire extra staff. 
   
  Then, I'd suggest talking about the implications of scaling back - more support issues, increased customer dissatisfaction, etc. And then ask them how they want to handle the situation.
   
  If your management won't make any changes - improve your situation - then you definitely know where you stand and unless you leave - this is your working life at this company.
   
  Good luck.
   
  SB <sylvia.braunstein at gmail.com> wrote:
  How do I get then to become more aware and request that they value the
documentation more than just "something that must be delivered with the
product" because it is a requirement?
.....
What do you do when
there is an unrealistic deadline that you can't meet? Just exclude part of
the features?
       
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