RE: Necessity of Doc Plans for a Single Chapter or Section

["Mike Starr" <writstar -at- wi -dot- net>]

In my case, I've been doing it long enough that I've got a damned good idea
what should go into "my concept" of what belongs in a user's manual or help
file. What I don't know at the beginning of the project is what's important
in the product. In my experience, ain't nobody gonna tell me either. I've
got to explore the product myself and figure it out. In the meantime, I
know enough of the basics that I can construct the document structure while
I'm learning the product itself. As I go about learning the product I'm
building the document and the outline of the document. In essence, the
document itself becomes the defacto doc plan. 

I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing but in the 16 years I've
been doing this, I've been basically left to my own devices on every
project I've worked on. I may have been shown the door for not doing a doc
plan but nobody's ever even suggested that the documents I produced weren't
great. Now I know I'm good but I also know that there are plenty of ways
they could be improved. I'm not near vain enough to suggest that my work is
perfect or even as good as I wanted them to be. The only reason they
weren't satisfactory in my eyes was that time limitations prevented it.
What we ended up with were as good as possible within the time allowed.

I genuinely believe that in the projects I've worked on, devoting a
substantial amount of time up front to creating a doc plan would only have
slowed down the process and resulted in a final deliverable that wasn't as
complete. And while I might have been able to pat myself on the back and
feel good about having produced a wonderful doc plan but the deliverable
had to suffer because of it, I'd rather not. I'd rather focus on the
deliverable.

Mike

---
Mike Starr                            WriteStarr Information Services
Technical Writer  -  Online Help Developer  -   Technical Illustrator
Graphic Designer    -    Desktop Publisher   -       MS Office Expert
Office:  (262) 694-1028 - Pager: (414) 318-9509 - Fax: (262) 697-6334
Home (262) 694-0932 - mike -at- writestarr -dot- com - http://www.writestarr.com

-----------------------Original Message-----------------------
>From:  Steve Hudson [mailto:steve -at- wright -dot- com -dot- au]
>To:  Mike Starr [mailto:writstar -at- wi -dot- net]; TECHWR-L
[mailto:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com]
>Date:  11/19/01 4:07:00 PM
>Subject:  RE: Necessity of Doc Plans for a Single Chapter or Section
>
>> Which would you rather have?? A doc plan or good docs? I vote for good
>docs.
>
>"Failing to plan is planning to fail." It's called a cliche because it has
>been around for so long. A good plan improves the Quality of the target
>documents and thus delivers back more than it took from the process. As
most
>Math teachers are keen to point out, if you show your workings and how you
>got to your answer, you still get a lot of points even if the final answer
>is incorrect.
>
>In the same way, if a doc plan has been made and the doc isn't up to
>scratch, its a simple matter of adjusting the plan. In this way results can
>be consistently achieved and quantification of future work is possible.
>
>Steve Hudson , HDK List MVP
>Wright Technologies Pty Ltd (Aus)
> 


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