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Re: Updated documentation

Subject: Re: Updated documentation
From: "Gene Kim-Eng" <techwr -at- genek -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2005 13:00:58 -0700


If your company has procedures in place for documentation, they should include
a process for sending updates to customers, regardless of how the previous
version was distributed. In this case, I would distribute the newly released
document as an "update," and play down the fact that the previous version was
a rogue issuance, at least in front of the customer. And if you really know there
won't be any consequences to the sender of the rogue document, there probably
isn't much point in raising the issue internally, unless you actually enjoy charging
at windmills. This situation will likely continue until someone sends out a rogue
document that ends up causing a major customer blowup of some sort.

Gene Kim-Eng



----- Original Message ----- From: <siliconwriter -at- comcast -dot- net>

The small start-up where I work is still in anarchy mode, so I have situations such as this: a software engineer was contacted directly by a customer, asking for instructions on a procedure. The engineer wrote up the instructions in whatever format pleased him, sent out the documentation, and then notified me of his fait accompli. We have procedures in place for documentation, which include review and approval, and this guy simply bypassed them. I know there will be no consequences to him. :) My problem is this: I have now reviewed, edited and properly formatted his instructions. It is now authorized for distribution to customers.

My question is: should I go ahead and send the updated, proper document to the customer? Would it be confusing for them to receive two documents that said essentially the same thing? Should I wait until there is an upgrade? I would rather our customer had a well-structured, proper-English document (which IMHO is much easier to understand) with part numbers and everything, but possibly it would cause more confusion than it is worth. Has anyone else been through this sort of thing? What did your company do?



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References:
Updated documentation: From: siliconwriter

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