Re: Developer wants to take over documentation

Subject: Re: Developer wants to take over documentation
From: Kathleen Padova <kpadova -at- ASICENTRAL -dot- COM>
Date: Tue, 29 Apr 1997 19:24:00 -0500

This just happened to me this week (sort of). We are on a tight time
schedule, so the developers thought it would benefit them if _they_
wrote the documentation and performed all the testing. That way they
felt they didn't have to have a completed product a few days before it
had to ship so that testing and user documentation could do their
jobs.

If they hadn't said that they would be responsible for testing too, no
one would have said that the user doc ought to be written by a tech
writer. Fortunately a stink was raised about programmers testing their
own applications on their own PCs and the whole rush project was
brought under control (or at least to a managed panic).

We compromised. A programmer is writing a document describing all of
the functionality as it is supposed to be, and I am supposed to turn
it into a suitable user guide.

Believe it or not, this is actually working and it looks like the
project and the documentation will make the deadline (barely).

Kathleen
kpadova -at- millstar -dot- com



______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Developer wants to take over documentation
Author: WILCOXJ -at- SMTP (John (Contractor) Wilcox) {wilcoxj -at- WDNI -dot- COM} at MHS
Date: 4/29/97 2:02 PM


Have any of you ever encountered a developer who wanted to take over the
documentation? It's just happened to me for the first time in my 11
years as a TW. And when he brought it up, a few others said they would
like to, too. Basically, it looks like I might have to teach developers
the idiosyncrasies of publishing, with Word no less!!!!! Any advice
will be greatly appreciated. I have to make a presentation Friday.


Thanks,

John Wilcox, Documentation Specialist
Timberlands Information Services
Weyerhaeuser, WWC 2E2
Tacoma, WA 98477-0001
206-924-7972 wilcoxj -at- wdni -dot- com

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