Re: YOU are responsible, even when YOU are not to blame

[Gene Kim-Eng <gene -at- genek -dot- com>]

This is actually a very significant difference, because depending on the 
organization
and the way it's managed, "responsibility" for accuracy can range from 
ferreting out
information firsthand by carrying out midnight raids on developers' notes 
to flagging
management about a breakdown in an established development or verification 
process.
As a manager, one of my biggest headaches has often been employees who don't
elevate such breakdowns to my attention until a situation has developed 
into a crisis,
with all the CYA fingerpointing that often accompanies.  In a well-managed 
process
(and I have lived in some) when a writer says something as simple as "I 
need input
on/a review of..." in a project meeting and the person who's chairing that 
meeting
replies with "Who can take care of that...?" someone on the team almost always
responds with a commit, because the alternative is an uncomfortable silence 
with a
manager standing at the head of the table; eventually, the developers who 
do respond
will get tired of watching those who don't sit silently by; in most cases 
unhelpful people
aren't just being unhelpful to tech writers.  Direct headbashing by 
managers is, as
Jenny says, often counterproductive and shouldn't be necessary if "management"
makes teamwork a priority.

Gene Kim-Eng



At 06:42 AM 4/8/2003 -0700, Andrew Plato wrote: