Re: Estimation of the number of pages to be written per day

["Mike O." <obie1121 -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

I agree that page counts are usually not a useful metric. But sometimes
it's useful to count the total number of topics. I find that counting
topics provides a gross order-of-magnitude estimate that can be useful
in the scoping phase (also count the number of screenshots). 

Of course, this assumes your topics will be correctly chunked and
fairly well normalized (i.e, one concept per topic). This chunking is
the part that is hardest to explain to non-writers. I'm not sure I
understand it myself, since I do it mostly by ear.

You can then look at your deadline and calculate how much time you have
to create each topic. Sometimes a rational quantitative estimate like
that can help sober up managers who figure the whole manual should be
whipped up in a few days. 

Mike O.



		
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