RE: Time estimate for writing manual

["David Locke" <dlocke -at- ll -dot- net>]

The simple solution to being locked in is to do exactly 120 hours of manual
content and then stop. Double your rate when they want more.

Then, the next question is how long does it take to do one topic? An hour?
Two hours? What kind of topics? What granularity. Deliver complete layers.

What one topic is more important than the rest? The next most important?
When you run out of hours, the rest of the topics aren't important.

Documentation is never complete. If scope is undefined, then define it
yourself so it fits into the budgeted and scheduled hours. Don't do the
whole thing, as there is no such thing. Content is endless.

As for the two audiences in this project, I would have said two documents.
And, yes, charge them for two front-matters and two back-matters. A user
manual with admin and end user in it is useless. Why not leave the pages
blank and just make door stops about two inches thick?

David Locke




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