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I've been doing both for a long while. I think they go well
together. In fact, I've been doing mostly QA for several months
on our new product. By the time I'm ready to start writing, I'll
already know the product quite well and will have developed some
ideas on how to present it. Also, if something seems unintuitive
or akward, I can point out how I will have to document it as an
argument for change. Sometimes it gets results.
In addition, writing skills are helpful when writing test
procedures and when writing bug reports.
-----Original Message-----
From: Jonny Benjamin [mailto:jonnyben -at- gmail -dot- com]
Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2007 2:24 AM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Part Time QA
Fellow TW's,
I wanted to get some insight from other writers. One of the tech
writing positions that I am currently looking into includes being
part of a QA team in the job description. In an initial
interview, the HR person pointed out that 50% of the position
will involve running tests just like a regular QA member. In my
many years as a TW I have contributed unofficially to "QA'ing"
while documenting UI and manipulating a system in order to write
about it but have never had to do official QA testing. My feeling
is that there is not enough regular documenting to do so the
company wants to take advantage of the TW for other duties. My
fear is that they will have unrealistic expectations from this
position. They also told me the current writer who has been there
6 years is leaving and (of course they didn't say because) he/she
was not prepared to function as a QA member.
Does anyone have experience with such a job description. Is this
a no go professionally for an experienced TW or alternatively
could it be challenging and add to my skill sets.
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