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Pam Mandel writes:
>
> I'm the new manager...
> putting together version 1.0 of our product now...
> I'm striving for a content complete
> date ... one week before we burn the product to
> disk. We've
> got about a month between the code freeze and the docs
> freeze. This makes me
> nervous. Does this seem like a reasonable amount of time to finish up?
> There's no test time for the docs if we finish up a week
> before we burn. Is
> this a pretty typical scenario for content complete?
Pam,
While it sounds really scarey, it doesn't really mean you
have only one month to do the docs. ;-) Even though code
freeze is only one month before doc freeze, the UI is not
going to be totally undeveloped/in flux until code freeze
day, so there'll be stuff that you can document long before
code freeze.
Start with the conceptual stuff. Gradually start documenting
the procedures that are relatively stable. Leave the areas of
the program that are in a state of flux until last.
Once an area of the program seems stable and it's doc'd, test
it, fix it, test it again. Get as much done before code freeze
as you possibly can. Then, once code freezes, you should be
able to update procedures to reflect the final changes in the
UI, quickly test those changes, and finish your production
edit in plenty of time.
Next time, negotiate a UI freeze date that is a week or so
before code freeze. The developers should be able to firm
up the interface first, before they dig into the low-level
bugs.
Best of luck! HTH!
-Sue
Sue Gallagher
sgallagher -at- kinzan -dot- com
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