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While I agree that it would certainly be nice to be able to say
"Development changed the product and slipped their code freeze date so I'm
entitled to that much additional time for the docs", the reality is that it
isn't normally the development team that sets delivery deadlines. It's
almost always based on some trade show or other external event and the date
is cast in stone and set by marketing and the wonderful folks they golf
with from mahogany row (the executive suite). So what do we do about it??
We pull all-nighters and we give them the best docs we possibly can and
hopefully the product makes a great impression with the reviewers at the
trade show. If we're lucky, the documentation gets mentioned favorably in a
review and we get an "attaboy" (or "attagirl" as the case might be). Or...
the review says the product seems to be pretty good but the docs are a tad
weak and all of a sudden they've all forgotten that we were under the gun,
did the best we could under the circumstances and should be getting
gratitude instead of icy stares. Don't forget that (in the words of my
favorite mechanical engineers) one "Aw, sh*t" negates ten "attaboy"s.
And we love it.
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Mike Starr WriteStarr Information Services
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-----------------------Original Message-----------------------
>From: Jeanne A. E. DeVoto [mailto:jaed -at- jaedworks -dot- com]
>To: TECHWR-L [mailto:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com]
>Date: 4/17/2002 1:34:00 AM
>Subject: RE: Ever wonder why techwhirler lives seem so crazy? (a long
rant)
>
>
>At 9:10 PM -0700 4/16/2002, Emily Berk wrote:
>> Code freeze slips;
>>
>> BUT
>>
>> the delivery date for the documentation slips NOT AT ALL.
>
>Here is the essence of the problem. If the documentation schedule is built
>around due dates, you're always going to have this happen, complete with
>finger-wagging WPs ranting about delays.
>
>If you are setting a documentation deadline, you *must* make it relative to
>code releases, *not* absolute. For example, "The final draft of the
>documentation is due three weeks after code freeze.", NOT "The final draft
>of the documentation is due on 8/11." You would think that anyone would
>realize that the latter has an implicit condition to the effect of
>"...assuming I get code freeze in a timely fashion", but no.
<snip>
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