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Summary list of recent "What do you document?" thread
Subject:Summary list of recent "What do you document?" thread From:cpwinter -at- rahul -dot- net To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 29 Nov 2002 12:18:37 -0800
Robin Johnson inquired:
"I?m curious to know what types of content you all produce"
Here's a (mostly) anonymous, informal summary of the responses:
* Training documents, policies and procedures, and operations materials
for a building services company
* Software used for modeling & optimization of manufacturing processes
and of enterprise business processes
* Enterprise-wide new-product-development scheduling, resource-
tracking, and presentation applications
* An EIA
* Custom trading and decision support applications for stock, bond and
derivatives traders
* XML content-creation software products
* Software applications used by production, sales, warehouse, and
plasma-collection employees in a pharmaceutical company
* Software and hardware documentation for Network Test Equipment
(testing protocol layers 1-7 on ATM/LAN/WAN interfaces)
* End-user documentation and training materials for ... Web-based
administrative systems {used in} higher education institutions
* Multimedia-rich documentation for 3D mechanical design software
* Design documents, service level agreements, project proposals for a
company that prints cheques, serialized gift certificates, tickets and so
on.
* ... pretty much anything
* Procedures for assembly and disassembly of fuel-cell power-plant
components
* Powder and liquid coating systems, induction curing systems, robotic
flux and conformal coating application systems for circuit board
manufacturers, form-in-place gasketing systems for automobile and
container manufacturers, and a host of other products for applying just
about anything you can think of to just about any kind of industrial {or}
consumer product. The components in these systems include, pumps,
valves, regulators, metering systems, spray guns, robot interfaces,
sophisticated custom-built controllers incorporating both PCs and PLCs
along with proprietary operator interfaces and control software, and high
voltage power supplies.
* Maintenance manuals for mid-size and small commercial aircraft jet
engines. Have I ever mentioned that on this list before? (Ducks incoming
shower of vegetables, shoes, and shouts of "Ad nauseum!")
* Virtual private networks - how to set up, configure, manage, and
troubleshoot them
* Sales proposals for a complex software system used to manage the
rating and billing of telecommunications services
* Hardware and software for a small flight simulation company
* Online help, user's guides, and training manuals for emissions-
estimation and pollution-control {software} systems used by government
and industry
* Hardware and software for semiconductor-production capital equipment
* Online help, user guides, and service manuals for IP telephony contact
center applications
* Software processes in a small biotech firm
* eHR applications - Human Resources administration software
* Variable print publishing and document management software
* Compliance software for the financial sector
* End-user documentation (user guides, online help, and quick-start
guides) for marine GIS software
* Both hardware and software documentation for everything from web-
based billing applications to medical devices to computerized warehouse
materials-handling vehicles to study guides for museum exhibits to
procedures manuals for churches
* Legacy systems (COBOL) for an insurance company
* Winhelp files, user manuals, quick-start guides, life-cycle maintenance
docs and computer-based training for finance and accounting software
applications for DoD personnel
* User documentation, training guides, release notes and quick-start
guides for our {custom software} products
* Privilege-control and housing-management systems for universities,
corporations, and hospitals
* Marcom materials and Print and online documentation for cost
accounting software for government contractors
* FDA-required documentation for medical imaging software
* User and administrator guides for travel-industry software
* Training materials for the software we produce and market
* Help files and manuals for datalogger hardware and software, as well as
provide "2nd line" customer support, customer training classes (on-line &
in-house), edit newsletters and literature, etc.
* Quick-reference guides & other documentation for a major
pharmaceutical company
* User guide for automatic fiber-optics-component welding & assembly
hardware
NOTE: The above entries were heavily edited by me. All but the last
(mine) are taken from the "Now is the winter of our dis-CONTENT" thread.
It looks like software and process documentation, and training, win out
over hardware documentation. I make it 34 to 10. (I tallied "hardware and
software" entries in each category, and counted "An EIA" as software.)
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