RE: Looks like we'll have to agree...

[KMcLauchlan -at- chrysalis-its -dot- com]

So, maybe you need to recruit Customer Service to help 
make your point to other management.

The benefit should be to reduce the number of calls -- 
especially repetitive ones -- to Customer Service.

Now, keep in mind that that's a benefit only if your 
company has some product guarantees and sells service 
contracts, where fewer actual calls means that the 
company keeps more of the money. 

If the company charges for every service call, then 
it's actually NOT in their interest (well, in the 
short term) to have solid documents that reduce the 
Customer Service revenue stream by cutting down on 
the number of calls...

Of course, if the Customer Service gang is willing 
to fight for you (in their own enlightened self-
interest), be sure to have at least one viable 
proposed solution for management to embrace. No, 
a lengthy requisition form is not a solution. You've 
already seen that people don't like filling out 
forms.

However, they'll probably answer the same questions 
if you ask them in person or in several e-mails... 
one or three questions per e-mail.

You don't say where YOU attach in the reporting 
structure. Reporting directly to a Veep can be 
good, but only when you are equipped to fight 
your own battles and do your own management, 
and need to invoke the big gun on only the 
rarest of occasions.

Reporting to someone farther down the food chain 
can mean that you may get more hands-on management 
than you entirely enjoy, but it also can mean 
that you have an ally to turn to for the trench 
warfare. 

Now, IF it happens that your manager feels 
rather stuck with you, and that only because 
he/she didn't duck fast enough... then maybe 
you should investigate the possibility of 
having your little two-person doco group moved 
to someone else's bailiwick.  PV/QC has worked 
out really well for me, and only some of that 
has to do with the calibre of the manager.

The fact is that your delivery happens at the 
end of every project. It can only help to be 
allied with somebody else who ALSO regularly 
feels the crunch of "sorry, we've used up all 
the project slack again" and delivers their 
stuff at the very end. That's QC or PV or 
whatever your company calls the people who 
must sign off that the product actually 
kinda works.

As well, it can help if your scheduling is done 
along with the scheduling of the testers who 
have to test the product... and your docs.

The fact that we do it the way we do it at 
our place tells me that there's no inherent 
reason why RC 1 needs final docs. If you were 
talking about HELP, now, I could see the point. 
But stand-alone document files simply do not 
have an impact on the integrity of a software 
installation CD. The builds librarian can easily 
leave an empty placeholder directory. Your 
docs can go in when the release is stable, and 
only cursory testing is needed to ensure that 
the addition of your docs to the build did not 
break anything.

If the word of God has commanded that "RC1" must 
be exactly what goes out the door, then you can
lobby for a pre-RC1 stage, during which the 
necessary things can happen. It's just a name game.

/kevin

> Don't think that I haven't talked to
> management about it, because I have.  I think the value of the docs is
> evidenced by the fact that customer service regularly 
> consults them to solve
> customer issues.  I am constantly pointing this out, and I meet with
> customer service to get their feedback on the docs (they have 
> been quite
> helpful).  

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