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Subject:Re: How can technical documentation add value? From:c -dot- sharp -at- meridio -dot- com To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com Date:Tue, 6 Jan 2004 05:03:31 -0700
One way in which manuals and online help can add value is by reducing the
need to contact support (by phone or email).
One project I worked on for a large investment bank involved documenting
some internal software for which the development team spent about 45% of
their time in supporting the users instead of actually working on the
software.
Once the manuals and online help had been completed and in use for about 3
months, the developers only spent about 20% of their time in support!
Benefits to the end user: they don't have to ring someone up every time
they want to know what a command does; they can just click on a button
instead.
Benefits to the company (and this applies whether your end users are
internal or external): less time spent on support == more time in
development == better use of their time
