RE: Why not do it ourselves? (Was: using 3rd-party books)

[kcronin -at- daleen -dot- com]

Jennifer wrote
> 	This may sound ignorant, but WHY does writing in this way require
> much more time or resources?  Couldn't it just be a matter of rethinking how
> we are presenting our work? We still have to do the same research...the
> biggest challenge I see is understanding what the user would *really* be
> trying to do and writing to difficulties he would actually run into. 


Maybe I'm misunderstanding you. Aren't you suggesting a goal of writing
several levels of documentation for the same product? In my experience,
it's challenging enough just to get a manual out the door within deadline,
much less write two more versions of it. I've never worked with a team
that had the resources to do that.


> So far, I haven't
> heard anyone say that it "shouldn't" be done, only that it could be
> unrealistically challenging. Is that right?


Absolutely. I'd LOVE to be able to produce the kind of documentation you
describe. But I've never worked for a company that could pull it off,
given their workloads and deadlines.

-KC

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