High-documentation, low-meeting work culture

Post by euroderf » Sat, Nov 26, 2022, 11:42 AM UTC

dividefuel wrote: post #358

namdnay wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience is that for internal documentation the time spent explaining things to a technical writer is bigger than the time spent writing the documentation This isn’t the case for external documentation, that has to be more polished, needs sign offs and images and demos and stuff - tech writers can come in useful here

It may take more time to explain it to a tech writer than it would for you to write it, but in most cases the final docs written by a tech writer will be much better.

Post by brainsiq » Wed, Nov 30, 2022, 9:01 AM UTC

bakuninsbart wrote: post #490

satisfice wrote: post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will say the obvious: documentation sucks because good writing is a highly skilled activity that takes a lot of energy for most people to do, AND because keeping it up to date takes a lot of time, no matter how good you are at it, AND because leaders of companies don't want to spend ANY money on tech writers. That's it. No mystery. (BTW, this would also be why company financial records would suck, if management dec…

Ironically, it is much easier for me to write good documentation if there are a couple of meetings scheduled around it. Having 3 joint sessions with at least another person is great, first to get the "bone structure" of the document, then to confirm that the "flesh sits right", and finally to resolve any unclarities that might be left.