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Subject:RE: Writing on a Cross-Department team From:John Garison <jgarison -at- ide -dot- com> To:"'Paul Hanson'" <PHanson -at- Quintrex -dot- com>, "'TECHWR-L'" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 31 May 2000 11:44:05 -0400
At IDe, we develop our entire software application with cross-functional
teams. Every feature is handled by a team consisting of a writer, developer,
QA engineer, and designer. We ALL work together to define the feature,
develop the UI, determine the technical and functional specs, and then are
responsible for coding it (often with additional programmers) documenting
it, getting it tested and approved, and into the pipeline to make a release.
It has been VERY effective in getting products done quickly and well - our
cycle times are about 2 months on average for releases with upwards of 15
features
John
John Garison
Documentation Manager
Integrated Development Enterprise, Inc.
150 Baker Avenue Extension
Concord MA 01742-2174
978.402.2907 Voice
978.318.9376 Fax
-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Hanson [mailto:PHanson -at- Quintrex -dot- com]
Sent: Friday, May 26, 2000 12:50 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Writing on a Cross-Department team
I just completed an exhaustive two days here. I was called into a
meeting by the VP of Internal Operations to be a member of a team that
was assigned the task of creating two documents: one, a Marketing sheet
and two, a two page white paper. We were called into the meeting on
Tuesday at 3:30 and I submitted it to the VP yesterday.
What I wanted to share was the value of working on a cross-department
team. There were four of us: the manager of our Training and
Installation department, a Senior System Designer, a trainer with
experience in the industry and myself. I took the lead and began writing
the Marketing sheet at 7:30 AM on Wednesday. I worked my way through 3
drafts before the four of us met at 10:00. We hacked my draft apart,
literally, with all four of us praising and making suggestions. It
wasn't about that I was on the team because of my writing skills.
Although I took ownership of the document and typed them up, there was a
positive change of ideas.
I had a real warm fuzzy feeling about this experience. I was surprised
that a team member who I thought wouldn't contribute ideas, contributed.
If you are asked to be on a cross-department team, keep your ears open.
You may pick up some ideas that you can bring back to your 'normal'
task.
How did we do? The VP called it an 'excellent' document and also said
that the company 'needs more of this. It's a template for going
forward.' <patting myself on the back and accepting cyber-pats>
