On 1/10/07, Lisa M. Bronson (TCP) <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Do you have an interesting story about creeping deadlines? If you do, > please share it with the list.
My deadline didn't creep--it leaped out from behind the bushes and ambushed me last week. I found out via an email from our mega-partner, for whom we OEM a software suite, that they expected a doc set for a field trial one full month (1/12) before we thought it was due. It seems they never told me, the project manager, or the program manager about this interesting deadline. Oops. Since I'm continually overscheduled (currently working on three projects) we were able to say "sorry, no delivery possible" and instead suggested they use the doc set for another release that's almost identical, feature-wise, to the one being field tested. Fortunately this was accepted. As for changing things at the last minute, when we were a much smaller company, with hardly any process or product specs, I was informed the day before a final build that the lead engineer decided to change the toolbar icons. "All I had to do was put different ICOs into SourceSafe," was his explanation. "Five minutes! What's the big deal?" After I got done whapping him with the Big Orange Whiffle Bat o' Doom, I explained to him that his five minute task meant at least a full day of graphic updates for me. He had no idea---they seldom thought about doc in those days. My work wasn't even in the MS Project schedules they set up. So I updated every screenshot in every book (doc set consisted of 7 books)---it took a solid ten hours. Fortunately I figured out it was much faster to Photoshop my way out of this dilemma than trying to recreate the environments I had set up to take the screenshots in the first place. To this day that particular engineer will occasionally tell me he's thinking of changing out all the icons, just for fun. No wonder I've pasted a picture of Tine the Brittle Tech Writer over my employee ID badge photo. <g> Nancy Kaminski ______________________________________________ Author Help files and create printed documentation with Doc-To-Help. New release adds Team Authoring Support, enhanced Web-based help technology and PDF output. Learn more at www.doctohelp.com/tcp. DITA West 2007--Use a discount code of "TECHCOMMPROS" to get a discount rate of $200 off the $800 price if you register before close of business January 15, 2007. http://www.travelthepath.com/conf/dita2007.shtml _______________________________________________ Technical Communication Professionals Post a message to the list: email [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, unsubscribe, archives, account options, list info: http://techcommpros.com/mailman/listinfo/tcp_techcommpros.com Subscribe (email): send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe (email): send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Need help? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] Get the TCP whole experience! http://www.techcommpros.com
