RE: Asking SMEs?

[<neilson -at- alltel -dot- net>]

I've found that it can improve my situation if I
volunteer to help with some non-tech-writing aspect
of the project.  Reviewing specifications or code
are appropriate tasks, and can often result in many
benefits:
  1. The writer learns about new projects sooner.
  2. The specs get debugged by a user advocate
     before the concrete hardens.
  3. The code suddenly acquires worthwhile comments
     that are not totally obscure.
  4. The writer understands the project better, which
     results in better docplans and better docs.
  5. There's an end-run around the PHB who didn't want
     any dumb writers wasting the SMEs' time.
  6. The SMEs eventually regard the writer as an actual
     cow-orker.

Of course it doesn't hurt if the writer did a bunch of
serious programming during a previous incarnation.  I used
to hack Unix kernel code, a long time ago in a galaxy
far, far away.  Magic words like single-threaded,
order of n log-n, and state machine float to my tongue
directly from the bottom side of my brain. 


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