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Subject:Re: Developer wants to take over documentation From:Michael Clark <mclark -at- MTU -dot- EDU> Date:Fri, 2 May 1997 15:59:18 -0400
Jennifer Geaslen wrote
> Interesting thread...how about we assume we know it all and start taking
> over the development of software. Wouldn't that be cool? I think our entire
> profession needs to get a backbone. Only one person suggested that this
> was insane!
>
> Questions like this frustrate me. It reminds me that what I do isn't really
> considered a profession. After all, anyone can write, eh?
I'm on a documentation team facing that same attitude. After five years
of developing and maintaining 1300+ pags of internal documentation, our
clients finally showed their true colors. They think all we do is
"pretty up" what they send us, and that a typist, who they think could
do what we do in their spare time, would make a suitable, if not
preferable, replacement. The majority of the clients, in fact, even
went so far as to suggest that we turn the care of the documentation
over to the respective clients--after converting them from FrameMaker to
WordPerfect, no less!
<sigh>
Mike
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