How to Gain the Respect of the Developers & Engineers in a Software Company
© 2010 Ugur Akinci
Here is an important article that all technical writers should read; especially those who work or would like work for a software company.
The article, written by Eric J. Ray, obviously an industry veteran who knows what he’s talking about, addresses an important issue rarely discussed this openly: for various reasons, sometimes technical writers are looked down upon by the developers and team members working on the same project.
The post in question lists concrete solutions to this old problem. If you’d like to fortify yourself with information that would help you establish a respectful relationship of equals with developers and other members of the project team, then you really should read this article and reflect on it. It’s got many lessons in it for us all.
Here are some of the solutions offered by Ray to the problem of “respect lacking”:
- Meet the developers
- Listen actively
- Try everything out
- Solicit customer/user input
- Attend all the meetings
- Get on the mail list
- Dive into the product
- etc.
