MEMORANDUM
  
  TO:     John Salis
  
  FROM:   Keith Corbett
  
  DATE:   Oct. 1, 1986
  
  SUBJ:   Doing Documentation Work
      
  After the fiasco today over the Laser1+ release notes (yet another example
  of Customer Service having to fill in for absentee Engineering project
  managers) it occurs to me that perhaps we should cross-charge 10% of my
  time to Engineering and Documentation.  Perhaps I am more frustrated than
  usual because I spent 8 hours this week researching and writing a manual on
  setting up a ZMail network (the existing manuals are not useful). 
  
  I've had to put in a lot of overtime to do work that should be done by
  Documentation.  We have had to write manuals to cover topics that they never
  seem to get to.  We have to do proof-reading because they can't seem to find
  spelling errors.  We have to run around and make sure the current revisions
  of the manuals are available, and see that they get shipped.
  
  The biggest problem is that the writers and project managers expect us to
  find their mistakes and correct them.  We've written some of them ourselves
  (Laser1+ Release Notes, 2.0 Patch Update Release Notes), and re-written many
  of the others extensively (Lambda Operations Manual, 3.0 Known Bugs and
  Limitations).
  
  Perhaps my first mistake was to take on the extra burden.  Now, they expect
  it.  I don't believe any of the programmers have ever cross-checked the tech
  writers' information -- we do.
  
  When will it end?
  
  I am especially concerned since most of the writers have moved on to
  engineering work.  Will they continue this level of quality on the software?
  ...And what is Engineering doing to replace them with qualified writers?
  
  As you know, our customers consistently point to documentation as the single
  weakest element of our product.  I can vouch for that; it has a severe
  impact on our ability to support the customers.  We have tried to make an
  impact on the process, but Sarah and Wendy do not seem to get the point:
  that technical writing is a professional skill, and requires standards,
  procedures, and organization.  All of these are completely lacking.

  Thanks for this opportunity to let off some steam.
  
  
  KMC