what separates a senior tech writer from a regular tech writer?

[Leonard C. Porrello]

Good question. I'd start by saying that development methodologies aren't
rocket science. In general, they are simply theories about how best to
prune and nurture the way teams tend to work together naturally and
projects tend to develop naturally. Each project, team, and corporation
has its own exigencies and requirements that make one model preferable
over others for any given project.

The "Software development process" article on Wikipedia looks to me like
a great place to start: http://en. wikipedia.org
/wiki/Software_development_process.

I've been fortunate enough to work in shops that used the various
methodologies I listed, and I don't think there is a substitute for
first hand experience. For example, if I go and work for a company that
claims to use the Waterfall model, I know to expect detailed functional
specs from which I can begin documenting at the outset of a project. I
also know that a mostly complete (alpha) version of my docs will be due
concurrently with the alpha release of the software. If I go to work for
a shop that uses the Agile model, I know that my docs are necessarily
going to lag behind development. Regarding "Senior" vs. "Intermediate"
vs. "Junior", this is where what other Techwr-lers have had to say about
experience comes into play.

Leonard C. Porrello
SoleraTec LLC
www.soleratec.com


-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+leonard.porrello=soleratec.com at lists.techwr-l.com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+leonard.porrello=soleratec.com at lists.techwr-l.c
om] On Behalf Of Julie Stickler
Sent: Friday, February 29, 2008 6:32 AM
To: techwr-l at lists.techwr-l.com
Subject: Re: what separates a senior tech writer from a regular tech
writer?

On Thu, Feb 28, 2008 at 11:41 AM, Leonard C. Porrello
<Leonard.Porrello at soleratec.com> wrote:

> A senior technical writer needs to understand fully the product
> development lifecycle of his industry and the role/place of writing in
> that lifecycle. For example, a senior technical writer in the software
> development industry should understand waterfall, iterative, and agile
> methodologies of software development, how writing fits into each, and
> the risks of each.

Leonard, If a technical writer were to want to learn about such
things, how would they go about it?  I can Google with the best of
them, but are there other resources out there for learning about
software development processes?   Good books?  Online courses?

Thanks!
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