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What I or anyone else here means by "addressing" something is totally irrelevant. The only thing that matters is what the customer and your lawyer(s) agree it means.
This is not your problem. You are just the guy who wrote the words. Their meaning and how the company applies them and deals with this customer are decisions that must be made at higher levels.
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Requirements analyst,
ISD and training maven,
Technical document wizard,
Process/decision flow chart Rembrandt,
Organizer, planner, and all around useful person.
--- On Fri, 3/12/10, McLauchlan, Kevin <Kevin -dot- McLauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com> wrote:
> From: McLauchlan, Kevin <Kevin -dot- McLauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com>
> Subject: Address this. . .
> To: "techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
> Date: Friday, March 12, 2010, 9:55 AM
>
> All,
>
> I'm getting push-back on some standard language in our
> Release Notes.
>
> In the list of issues/bugs that are not being fixed for the
> current
> release, we say "To be addressed in a future release".
>
> We carefully don't even say "next" release.
>
> But the problem is the word "addressed".
>
> Some customer has decided that "To be addressed in a future
> release"
> means "...an explicit prmise that the issue is to be fixed
> exactly how I want it".
>
> I have labored under the illusion that to "address"
> something
> is to turn your attention to it. To pick it up and make a
> decision, and _possibly_ act on it.
>
> So, as far as _I_ am concerned, we "address" issues by
> deferring them,
> by delaying them, by deciding that they are not worth
> doing, and even
> by deciding to FIX something... and fixing it. But,
> as far as I'm
> concerned, as a native English speaker, all of those other
> practices
> are ALSO, just as validly, "addressing" the issues.
>
> It's like prayer (if one is religious):
>
> God always answers prayers.
> Sometimes the answer is no.
>
> Please tell me what you believe is meant by "to address
> something".
>
>
>
> - Kevin
>
> PS: "The customer is always right" is not a helpful
> response.
>
>
>
>
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