RE: Re. How to document multiple user roles?

[david -dot- locke -at- amd -dot- com]

I'm a stickler for role-based books. In the case where tasks are mutually
exclusive and it has to be in one book. I would break the book into sections
where each section covered the concepts, conceptual model, features, and
tasks for a particular role. 

I've documented network administration utilities where one level of
administrator could get reports and another had to enable that
administrator's ability to query. Tunneling was used, so some admins kept
secrets from other admins. 

It seems like a mistake to tell non-admins about admin tasks. I know that
I've had to cover up admin roles, because TCO was an issue. My company
didn't want customers thinking that needed to administer the software. We
took what would have been a single book and included it as a section in the
user manual. Seems like fraud.

Omitting admin or burying it makes purchase decisions harder for the
customer. SAP has been sold on the basis of cost savings. Few of these
savings ever show up, because of the administrative burden. The issue of how
to organize the content impacts things outside the scope of the vendor
organization. 

David



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