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Eileen wrote...
> I am writing a documentation plan and am trying to determine roughly how much time to allocate to what task. I have six weeks to produce a manual.
>
> Could someone share how much time you typically allocate for the following tasks-writing an outline, research and writing, sign off process, indexing and formatting?
....
It really depends on what you're writing, what resources you have
available to you, what the state of the existing docs is, how
knowledgeable you are in the subject, and so forth.
I index as I go, so that time is built right into content development
time. There's some time at the end of a project (a day) for finalizing
the document (pagination, index proofing, etc.).
I tend to work fast and furiously with regard to content development,
and have my publishing systems clean and well-oiled already. I
automate as much as possible (even the construction of procedural
steps) to cut down on repetitious tasks and so I can spend the bulk of
my time on the most valueable and important aspects of the project
(content development).
So I'm sure none of this helps you, or maybe it does... To give you an
idea of what I'm working on with one other writer (2 people):
Project timeline: 5 months
Project info: .NET SDK complete with sample apps, utilities, and
VS.NET-integrated online help
Maintenance items:
* 400 page Developer Guide - major organizational and content overhaul
(print, PDF, HTML, and VS.NET-integrated help)
* 10,000+ topic context-sensitive SDK reference, integrated into the
Visual Studio .NET IDE
* full color object model poster (print, PDF, and VS.NET-integrated help)
* various how-to papers (10-50 pages in length each)
New items:
* collected interface for all this (VS.NET integrated and stand-alone)
* content for the high-level areas within the interface
* browsable interface for sample applications and tutorials
(VS.NET-integrated and stand-alone)
* the tutorials themselves
So yeah, it looks like a lot but with proper process, prioritization,
available resources, and automation, it's very much possible in 5
months.
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