Fwd: What to call this doc?

[Kevin McLauchlan <kmclauchlan -at- chrysalis-its -dot- com>]

Sorry if this is double-posted. I got a cryptic message 
from Eric saying my posting had been accidentally 
filtered, but not saying which one... given the delays 
I sometimes encounter, I'm only guessing that it 
was this one.  Anyway, help and suggestions gratefully 
accepted.

----------  Forwarded Message  ----------

Subject: What to call this doc?
Date: Wed, 16 Oct 2002 11:15:04 -0400
From: Kevin McLauchlan <kmclauchlan -at- chrysalis-its -dot- com>
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com

We provide "Release Notes", per product, to our
customers.  So far, so good.

Meanwhile, the Product Verification department
creates a document that they call "Release Notice",
which is their final sign-off/hand-off to indicate
 that a release is... well.... released....
 completed... checked and thrice-checked... tallied
 and totalled... summed-up... covered-off...accounted
 for, in all its myriad dimensions...

This can be a relatively massive document that
includes a lengthy checklist, confirming that
all the release criteria have been met. It includes
the filled-in test cases and test reports, copies of
all the closed bug/issue reports, signed-off bills-
of-materials, and a bunch of other stray things
that need to be tied up in a nice neat package
to show that everybody has done their part,
everything works (or there's a signed-off deviation
for anything that doesn't work...) and that we have
all done our respective parts.  It's not just a GA
document, because the same thing (on a greater
or lesser scale is produced for alphas and betas
and other special-purpose builds, etc.

It's a "Statement of Commitments Met" document...
though that's too long and cumbersome for a
real working title.

The problem is that "Release Notice" sounds too
much like "Release Notes", and people keep mixing
them in conversation, and mistakes/misaprehensions
have occurred. We need to rename one document
or the other, and I think "Release Notes" are a
standard name for the Customer-facing doc that
tells people what's new, what's fixed, what platforms
are supported, and what's broken this time.

So, the question is: what is a good name -- what do
other companies and industries call it -- for that
final-accountability in-house document (set) that
verifies that all required actions have been performed
for a release?  Maybe a long title could be devised
that indicates the comprehensiveness of the beast,
but that yields a nice, catchy acronym?   Help?

/kevin

-------------------------------------------------------

-- 
** DIR-ty DEEDS, and they're DONE dirt cheap. (Sing it, 
now...)
    


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