JIT Documentation & the Customer (vs- audience)

[Michael Andrew Uhl <uhl -dot- mike -at- epamail -dot- epa -dot- gov>]

TECHWR-Lers:

My experience coincides with Andrew Plato's concerning Just-In-Time
documentation. It is far more efficient for me to wait until the last
possible moment and write documentation in a hurry. It's "fresh" and
unified as Andrew says, but I've also seen other benefits. For example,
the customer(s) like this approach because they feel like they're
getting the most for their money out of me. They see me produce a lot of
documentation in a hurry and the quality is pretty good, especially
compared to what they're used to seeing.

I realize I'm going to get toasted for this, but the deal for me is, I
serve the needs of my employer (my customer) ahead of my reader. That's
not to say I leave the audience out; I design and write for the
audience, but the customer has the final say on all of these matters. If
the audience struggles with the product, then, hopefully, my customer
will figure this out and let me make the needed improvements.

This reminds me that there are two kinds of documentation in the world:
the kind that someone actually might read and find useful for the
intended task, and the kind I generally write: the kind that meets
regulatory requirements and is generally only looked at--not read--by
auditors. It's a bit depressing if I think about it too long, so I focus
on the work and the paycheck instead. :-)

Cheers.

-Mike
-- 
Michael Andrew Uhl (mailto:uhl -dot- mike -at- epa -dot- gov)
Lockheed Martin - U.S. EPA Scientific Visualization Center
Ph. (office) 919.541.4283; 919.541.3716 (lab)
P.O. Box 14365  Research Triangle Park, NC 27709