RE: RE: Help on Coordination between Engineers and Technical Witers

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

I usually take stuff in with me to work on while I sit in
the back of the room ("fly on the wall").  After the first
few meetings of most new projects, I can get a feel for
signs that something of interest to me is happening.  
These days most of what I'm doing is writer assignment
management, budgeting, etc., but even if I'm doing a
hands-on project, there's usually something I can print
out to review or edit so I don't have to leave the meeting 
and return to my office in order to get something done.
In some past situations there was a risk that one might
be perceived as not being "attentive," but these days
multitasking has become routine and I see all the key
players doing it.

About the "too technical" remark:  yes, it's quite possible
that the real problem is that the writers aren't technical
enough.  However, the OP is their manager.  Unless you
were hired on as writer #1 and got to build your own team
of highly technical writers from the ground up, most 
managers have to deal with the dept and the writers they 
have.  And sometimes, a team that is highly adept in its 
company's existing technology may find itself called upon 
to support a new technology and development team that has
been "acquired" from some unrelated field.  Process is
not a replacement for technical knowledge, but it's better
than nothing.

Gene Kim-Eng



------- Original Message -------
On Thu, 26 Feb 2004 12:47:13 -0500 John Posada wrote:
John Posada wrote: 

>> too technical, how do you write about it? Shouldn't you at 
>> least be at the level where you'll know enough about what 
>> they are talking about to know if they are discussing a 
>> feature you don't know about?
>
>I think there's a balance point here, though I was also 
>troubled by the same statement that John quoted in his 
>posting.

Every time I participate in one of these "technical" meetings, I tell
the person running them at the beginning that they should not be
offended if I excuse myself during the meeting. After 15 minutes, I can
tell what kind of meeting this is going to be and if it's not the most
effective use of my time, It makes sense to be elsewhere.