Re: FW: Everybody's a Reviewer

[Chris Hamilton <chamilton -at- GR -dot- COM>]

Someone wrote

> Now that I am all ready to go to press, the approval board (my boss) has come up with
> a creative idea: The entire R&D and QA staff has to read the entire book.
> I have never heard of this kind of procedure before and it sounds to me like
> the world's biggest nightmare, but my boss refuses to budge. Can anybody
> give me some good arguments why this shouldn't happen. When I noted
> that this is an expensive use of the programmers' time, he said, "You just let
> me worry about that."

How big is the entire R&D and QA staff?  Maybe you can get your boss to
accept a review by a part of these staffs. You could also let him know
what the possible impacts to the publishing schedule will be for this
review to occur.  You should absolutely let it be known that next time
it would be better for the document and everyone involved if this were
to be determined earlier, rather than later, in the cycle.

Obviously, I don't know the situation, but this has all the marks of
coming from higher than your boss.  He may not be able to budge (or at
least he may not think he's able to budge).

My suggestion is to get everyone together in a room and go over the
document page-by-page.  It sounds as if this is the only way to get it
done in time.  It'll also be the only time it happens.  After this,
you'll have leverage for getting reps from all the interested parties.

Also, play the biggest lottery you can find.

Good luck.

Chris.

--
Chris Hamilton, Technical Writer
Greenbrier and Russel
chamilton -at- gr -dot- com
847.330.4146
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