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Re: Agile software development and effect on techwriting
Subject:Re: Agile software development and effect on techwriting From:"Andrea Brundt" <andrea_w_brundt -at- hotmail -dot- com> To:"Gene Kim-Eng" <techwr -at- genek -dot- com>, "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 13 Jan 2004 14:52:05 -0500
Gene asked:
> I'd be very interested in knowing how many techwriters have
> ever had "an extra two months at the end of the process" to
> document a SW UI.
I'm often forced to release documentation in various states of disrepair.
Our software development process isn't exactly agile -- it scores low on
agility (ditto on Wisdom, Charisma, Stamina, Strength, Dexterity, and
Intelligence). Seriously, the process is ad hoc at best. The result, for a
tech writer, is the same -- lots of things change, late in the developement
cycle, without notice.
To fill this gap, the best I've been able to do is build a process for
ditributing the online help via ftp, after the release. Gross, eh?