radical revamping of techpubs

[Rene Stephenson]

HA! Quite true! TW's usually also bring an approach that is closer to "green field" than the developers, engineers, etc., can provide. Because they understand how THEY INTEND for it to function and be used, they can be a bit myopic about how what they have CREATED actually plays out.

Rene

Bill Swallow <techcommdood at gmail.com> wrote: I'd say that those are additional skills. What I took Chris' remark to
mean is that writers should be there through the entire process,
involved with design, so not only do they influence the product design
along with the other stakeholders, but also have a means of thoroughly
planning the entire documentation effort as part of that product
development planning. Let's face it, most tech writers come at a
product from a different angle than an engineer or a tester. It may
not always be user focused, but it certainly is from a task-based
angle. "Is this thing going to be well thought out and therefore easy
to explain or is this going to be yet another 100 page install
procedure?"