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Engineers are hired, and paid, to code and write new functionality. It's unsurprising that they're generally not going to prioritize the quality of documentatio
by tomkarlo 14y ago
Engineers are hired, and paid, to code and write new functionality. It's unsurprising that they're generally not going to prioritize the quality of documentation, since that effort primarily benefits someone OTHER than the author.
While it's great to encourage better composition by the developers, companies should also consider the benefits of hiring proper technical writers - people who work primarily to improve and refine the quality of internal and external communications.
There's an added benefit: sometimes it's harder to write documents for people unfamiliar with a subject when you yourself are very deeply immersed in it. (E.g. an API is written a certain way BECAUSE that made sense to the guy who designed it. He's not going to see what has to be explained to a third party, because he sees it as intuitive.) Having a technical writer provide a more detached perspective on the quality of a document can be invaluable for both the developer and the final reader.