FW: docs fitting into development

["Andrew Dugas" <dugas -at- intalio -dot- com>]

I'm with the project leader on this, at least as I understand the conflict.

Are we talking content or the help system that contains that content? If I'm
not mistaken, the project leader's concern is with  the help system
(WinHelp, HTML, JavaHelp, whatever) being integrated into development early
and not so much with the actual content.

In my last two positions, I have worked in an environment in which help
files went into CVS right alongside the code for the product. It was great
because you could see and test your help as soon as the build was, er,
built. In some cases, help files were blank placeholder files, but places
(and the links among those places) were indeed held, tested early and
waiting for content.

Any lag between the development stage and the docs stage was rounded off in
the last few builds before shipping.

On the other hand, waiting until the final builds to add the help system
itself is more dangerous. Consider the product being ready to go, but a
whole crop of issues suddenly arises because the help file system was never
put into place or tested. The whole ship date could be thrown off.

Andy

-----Original Message-----
From: bounce-techwr-l-88324 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
[mailto:bounce-techwr-l-88324 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com]On Behalf Of Alex
Silbajoris
Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2002 8:22 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: docs fitting into development




Yesterday I amusedly watched my manager and a project leader butting heads
over this issue.  First, for background, our development group "finishes"
modules and turns them over to our internal QA group.  If they pass, they
then go on to a client QA group.  Our doc group has always begun to document
the interface (via hands-on testing) beginning from the time our QA group
gets the material.

The project leader (new to the company) requested that the documentation be
complete when our QA group gets the modules.  I told him that as long as the
materials are still in development, it's too soon to take a snapshot of
them.  My manager told him that we document what comes out of our QA, so the
doc accurately reflects what goes to the client QA (not what the client
design specifies, or what the code says, but what the interface actually
does).

The amusing thing about the project manager's view is how it completely
ignores the time required to document the materials.  In that view, if the
development is finished, why wouldn't the documentation be finished at the
same time?

For the heck of it, I went ahead and tried to capture some interface
elements I would need for the documentation.  I found tables without data,
fragments of java appearing on the screens, and my favorite of all - a popup
error message that said DANG and nothing more.

(This reminds me of a line by Groucho Marx, in the role of Captain
Spaulding, about taking pictures.)

-


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