Re: Certification

[Bonni Graham <bonnig -at- IX -dot- NETCOM -dot- COM>]

>>Just a thought ... does anyone on the list report/work under marketing
>or
>>sales management instead of technical development? I would think
>marketing
>>would place more importance on good documentation, if nothing else as a
>sales tool.
>>Does anyone have any input that might prove/disprove that?

At my first job, I worked under Marketing.  It did not work out well in the
company's culture.  The technical people didn't like working with me because I
was one of Them (the marketing/sales people who made them push deadlines because
a promise had been made to the customer without asking development about it).  I
got little or no repsect in marketing 'cause I was perceived as a weenie, since I
actually both understood and sympathized with development about the previouly
mentioned communication difficulty.

To make it even more fun, the company had two development departments with one,
count 'em one TW -- ME! NOBODY ever knew what I was supposed to be working on
until I finally got mad and drew up a list of all the projects for both depts
that needed doc and made the two development managers and my manager sit down and
assign priorities.

The marketing department at this company placed no more noticeable importance on
doc at all (let alone good doc) than development -- in fact, some of my strongest
proponents for deadline extensions were in development. I honestly don't know if
this represents a trend or this company's dysfunctional culture.

The next co. I worked at put me under Tech Pubs, which I think were ultimately
under Development (Sue -- were we?). Not a screaming lot more respect, but a lot
of my previous difficulties went away.

Now I'm the "outside expert" so I'm listened to more.  Same advice I gave at the
previous two companies is valued (mostly) -- go figure!

--
Bonni Graham
Manual Labour
bonnig -at- ix -dot- netcom -dot- com