Comments on: It’s not about writing … it’s about shipping

By: Two things to know about art and process « Kai's Tech Writing Blog

Two things to know about art and process « Kai's Tech Writing Blog — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 09:12:52 +0000

[...] I first heard about McConnell and how he’s relevant for tech writers in ITauthor’s blog post “It’s not about writing … it’s about shipping“. [...]

By: Kai

Kai — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 11:47:43 +0000

Thanks for the pointer to McConnell and his concept of thrashing!

It's a great illustration of documentation projects gone awry in later stages: All visible progress gets replaced by unplanned rewriting and editing, project management and meetings.

And it underscores the importance of getting your documentation design and structure approved, so everybody agrees on what the deliverable format and structure will be.

By: Alistair

Alistair — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:30:36 +0000

You're right. I also think people not directly involved in a project that starts going wrong often react by putting their fingers in their ears and going "La la la la." People often don't want to hear bad news so they go out of their way not to hear bad news. Eventually it can't be ignored any more, the plug gets pulled and the sacrificial sacking takes place. On the other hand I've experienced a project that got into bad trouble, but when the plug was pulled it looked like the project might be salvageable. That's a tough decision to make. Lots of time/money/effort has been spent. The temptation is just to give it a little more time. But the decision to amputate the rotting limb, while difficult to make, is always the right decision.

By: Ivan Walsh

Ivan Walsh — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 14:44:05 +0000

Hi Alistair,

‘Pride’ keeps many projects alive, which should really be pulled or binned.

Internal politics can also be a minefield.

What’s he got against lizards, by the way?

Ivan