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Subject:Re: Document Wildly Until Someone Blows A Whistle From:"Gene Kim-Eng" <techwr -at- genek -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Tue, 4 Jan 2005 19:00:03 -0800
Our more or less SOP when it comes to scoping out documents for new
products under development is to work with (or, depending on the exact
situation, lean on and relentlessly nag) the Marketing and Engineering
managers to triage our list of potential topics into three basic categories:
A Topics: Must have; the customers will be unable to use the product
without this information and they will scream like
banshees.
B topics: Should have; the customers could potentially use the product
without this information, but their "user experience" will
be
enhanced if they have it.
C Topics: Nice to have; the customers may find this information of use
or interest if they see it, but probably won't miss it if
they don't.
The writers then employ the "document wildly" technique starting with
the A topics, then movng on to the B topics, stopping at the point in the
development schedule at which the document must be provided to
support delivery. No attempt is made to equalize the size or time
devoted to the topics, they get what they need within the limits of the
project requirements: completion of all A topics on schedule represents
"meeting" objective, completion of most or all B topics is "exceeding."
The C topics are summarily and regularly excised from the earliest
outlines.
Different topics should not be equal to others in size. You need to devote
more space to more complex functions. In my response of the other day, I
spoke of the "scoping out" of a document by writers of the respective
features and concepts before project estimates are made, so you are not
the
only person speaking of this.
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