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Re: Refining My "Cutting Edge" Technical Writing Skills Post

Subject: Re: Refining My "Cutting Edge" Technical Writing Skills Post
From: David Tremblay <techwrit -at- mediom -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2003 10:31:54 -0400


I jump in for the second time

Bonnie Granat wrote:

I'm suggesting that, let's say, three weeks researching for every one week
actually creating the documentation is a ratio that might offer another reason
for the existence of so much inferior documentation. It simply should not take
that long to learn the product one is documenting, in my opinion. And if it
does, the amount of time and care spent on creating good documentation should
be commensurately increased. I offer as evidence the current quality of a good
deal of the documentation that now exists. Perhaps I am wrong, though. This is
my sense of the way things should be, but I'd be interested in what others
have to say.


Well, all the projects I've been involved in, were starting projects which means there was no product at all when I started working!!! 3 to 1 research/writing ratio might be too tight for me, in my first TW job, it tooks almost 6 months before I could really "play" with the product without doing pure QA. And the project lasted 18 months

So my time was spent elsewhere at those firsts stages : helping developpers with UI, helping architects with analysis and research, helping the manager, meetings with client, third party analysis, planning ahead the stuff I would have to write and so on. Once the product (or part of it) starts to be a usable product I could start writing about it. When the product was almost finished I had to come back on QA tasks and after QA I had to validate/revise the documentation with SMEs and the client. Finally everything was delivered in the same time. Next project, period. (Then the client, the vendor, the developping team had forgotten a very critical function so all this process would come back)

It is probably a more typical process for an IT shop not a product one. What do you think?

Sorry again for my english.

David


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References:
Re: Refining My "Cutting Edge" Technical Writing Skills Post: From: Goober Writer
Re: Refining My "Cutting Edge" Technical Writing Skills Post: From: Bonnie Granat

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