atw: Re: Report from a parallel universe - Manuals to cherish
- From: Bob Trussler <bob.trussler@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 2 Jul 2010 22:17:35 +1000
oops, I am entering my anecdotage.
Bob T
On 1 July 2010 09:12, LEWINGTON Warren <Warren_LEWINGTON@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:
> I remember you telling this story. It is worth keeping in mind...
>
> Regards
> Warren Lewington
> Technical Writer
> Compliance and Enforcement Branch
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:
> austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] *On Behalf Of *Bob Trussler
> *Sent:* Wednesday, 30 June 2010 10:06 PM
> *To:* austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> *Subject:* atw: Re: Report from a parallel universe - Manuals to cherish
>
> Warren,
> A system designer and the author of a high level design, that I had edited
> and pubished online, wanted to print it in a format that the developers and
> analysts would 'cherish'.
> 'You want what???'
> 'If we give them a document in the usual crappy white two-ring binder, they
> will put it on their shelves, forget about it, after some use it starts to
> fall apart, pages fall out, then they will trash it in the next office
> move. But if it looks good, is nicely bound, has a stylish cover, then it
> becomes something to cherish.'
> We printed it with a card cover and a binding rather like a paperback
> book. The title on the cover was 'nice and stylish' (whatever that means).
> It was well received.
> Being a record of a system's high level design, there was very little
> change.
>
> About five years later, I was back at that department and wanted some
> information that I knew was in that doc. I wandered into the developer's
> area and looked around. Most of the bookshelves still had this document. A
> young developer who was new to the area offered help. I asked to read his
> copy of the doc. He started to tell me what a great doc it was, how he
> liked (cherished) it, and so on. The painful part was not laughing, made
> worse by several older developers having a chuckle.
>
> I contacted the original author and told him that his work and design was
> still being cherished.
> "Of course it is!"
>
>
> Bob Trussler
>
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--
Bob Trussler
Phone 0418 661 462
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