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RE: YOU are responsible, even when YOU are not to blame
Subject:RE: YOU are responsible, even when YOU are not to blame From:"David Hickey" <david -dot- hickey -at- cgi -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 7 Apr 2003 18:53:24 -0400
Greetings!
When it comes to a documentation project, the writer is ultimately
responsible for the quality of the documentation. He is equally
responsible for its success as well as its failure, sometimes both at
the same time.
Of course, this also holds true for the Lead Programmer (or Manager). If
the application is stable at release time, that Manager must take
responsibility for that. If the application is buggy at release time,
that Manager must also take responsibility for that.
A bad Manager, when faced with buggy software, will say "It's not my
fault! It's Marvin the developper who screwed up! It's the specs that
were unclear! The workload was unreasonably high!" These are all
diversionary tactics that only shift blame rather than provide solution.
A good Manager, when faced with buggy software, will take responsibility
and provide solutions to the problem: patches, extra CDs/diskettes, info
on the website, service packs, etc.
A good writer, when faced with errors and omissions in the
documentation, will take responsibility for this situation and therefore
provide solutions: release notes, online help patches, info on the
website, etc.
Taking responsibility doesn't mean that you're taking the blame. Taking
responsibility means that you are recognizing the problem and you are
take the responsibility to provide solutions to that problem.
If there's one thing I learned from my first stint as a Documentation
Manager, it's that. And I can tell you, I learned it the hard way.
--
John David Hickey
Mtl_techwriter Moderator http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mtl_techwriter/
Documentia Inc.
Montreal, Quebec, Canada eh? http://documentia.ca
514-488-5430
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