TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
>How many of you would likely have caught the omission
>that embarrassed our customer?
>
>Is this one of those "you live and learn" situations,
>or is it "a competent and thorough TW would have
>covered all the scenarios that a customer would
>encounter"?? I confess that his situation never even
>crossed my mind.
The trick is not to think of every permutation, but to develop a process of
defining the procedure so each permutation is addressed automatically.
I'm a big fan of visual logic decision trees which I do in Visio to help me
determine how to write the instructions.
It will be tough to visualize in text, but example:
1) Do you have a token
Yes - Initialize it and go to step 3
No - Go to step 2
2) Do you Need a token
Yes - Contact xxx and when received, go to step 1
No - Got to End
3) Do you have another token?
Yes - Go to step 1
No - Go to step 4
4) Has the token been authenticated
Yes - Go to step 5
No - Authenticate it, then go to step 6
5) Do you have another token
Yes - Go to step 4
No - Go to step 6
etc., etc.
Every step along the way must have a Yes or No. You'd be amazed at what dead
ends you place the reader if you don't include something to do at every Yes
and No point. Ever see a document that says:
1) Do X. You should see Y
2) At Y, do Z.
The problem is that the instruction never says what to do if you DON't see
Y. This process eliminates that trap.
At least it works for me.
John Posada
Senior Technical Writer
Barnes&Noble.com
jposada -at- book -dot- com
NY: 212-414-6656
Dayton: 732-438-3372
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A new book on Single Sourcing has been released by William Andrew
Publishing: _Single Sourcing: Building Modular Documentation_
is now available at: http://www.williamandrew.com/titles/1491.html.
Help Authoring Seminar 2003, coming soon to a city near you! Attend this
educational and affordable one-day seminar covering existing and emerging
trends in Help authoring technology. See http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l2.
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
