Friday, October 26, 2007
Mercury in Retrograde
There is an astrological concept of planets going retrograde, apparently travelling backwards through the signs, then going direct and travelling the usual direction. Mercury does this a few times a year. It's doing it right now.
What does that have to do with DITA? Nothing, directly.
But, I'm realizing that I'm falling into one of those dreams where robots and men fix bolts and weld seams as I roll along the assembly line. Pray that nothing goes wrong. I hope I'm being made by alert, happy workers.
I am actually enjoying the transition from a Jane-of-all-features to the mistress of some.
I've been working on an analysis package for a couple of years now. It's a strange duck in our product line. There is only one other project that inspires more fear and dread: the transducer care website.
So, when we decided to parcel out content by subject area, rather than product, I took analysis. I'm slogging through specifications and I'm really feeling like I'm making a contribution. Except, I just found out that we've not been configuring our simulation correctly and I've been saying product x has feature y when it doesn't. It seems to, to me, because I'm not applying the right filters to the setup. All my simulations are, essentially, of the same product, even if I think I'm setting up different products.
We've now documented the setup procedure (and shared it with some other folks who need it and didn't have it) and I'm reviewing my work. I thought I was about half-way done and now I'm walking back to the starting line, like Mercury in retrograde, going backwards through my work, and then I'll turn around and go forward again.
To give myself a break from this sad fact, I decided to put some extra effort into my Six Sigma project. I asked around and got a procedure document that described the current process (that I am supposed to improve) and I spent the day working on process flow and dependencies. Late in the afternoon, I took my work to a SME for a quick review and on the first page he said, oh, you were working off the old process. We have a new process, you should use that.
I left work for the day shortly after that.
Next week, I will complete my retrograde and go direct.
What does that have to do with DITA? Nothing, directly.
But, I'm realizing that I'm falling into one of those dreams where robots and men fix bolts and weld seams as I roll along the assembly line. Pray that nothing goes wrong. I hope I'm being made by alert, happy workers.
I am actually enjoying the transition from a Jane-of-all-features to the mistress of some.
I've been working on an analysis package for a couple of years now. It's a strange duck in our product line. There is only one other project that inspires more fear and dread: the transducer care website.
So, when we decided to parcel out content by subject area, rather than product, I took analysis. I'm slogging through specifications and I'm really feeling like I'm making a contribution. Except, I just found out that we've not been configuring our simulation correctly and I've been saying product x has feature y when it doesn't. It seems to, to me, because I'm not applying the right filters to the setup. All my simulations are, essentially, of the same product, even if I think I'm setting up different products.
We've now documented the setup procedure (and shared it with some other folks who need it and didn't have it) and I'm reviewing my work. I thought I was about half-way done and now I'm walking back to the starting line, like Mercury in retrograde, going backwards through my work, and then I'll turn around and go forward again.
To give myself a break from this sad fact, I decided to put some extra effort into my Six Sigma project. I asked around and got a procedure document that described the current process (that I am supposed to improve) and I spent the day working on process flow and dependencies. Late in the afternoon, I took my work to a SME for a quick review and on the first page he said, oh, you were working off the old process. We have a new process, you should use that.
I left work for the day shortly after that.
Next week, I will complete my retrograde and go direct.
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