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Beena V Katekar wonders: <<Could anyone enlighten me with the available
standardized checklist to collect the information from the customer
especially when the techwriter is working offshore?>>
Are you asking for information on how to write a contract for the customer,
or how to create a list of deliverables for documentation?
For contracts, you need to talk to a lawyer, particularly if you're working
in a different country from the customer. Most contracts I've seen specify
which laws (e.g., "the laws of the state of Colorado") govern the
interpretation of the contract. To give you an idea of some of the items to
include in a contract, have a look at the one proposed by the Editors
Assocation of Canada (http://www.editors.ca/pubs/contract.htm).
For documentation, there is no standardized checklist. You have to develop
your own list of questions and required components for each new project,
since the needs of each project generally differ significantly from those of
previous projects. Start with a careful consideration of what your readers
need to know, and see if you can discover answers to these questions
yourself. Where you can't obtain the information yourself, then you need to
ask the customer for details.
--Geoff Hart, geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada
580 boul. St-Jean
Pointe-Claire, Que., H9R 3J9 Canada
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