Re: ratio of tech writers to developers at your company?

["CB Casper" <knowone -at- surfy -dot- net>]

I recently was asked this question as were the other
documentation managers. As I perused the relevant
org chart for our labs, I started to ask the question
to myself, who do they consider relevant in the lab
to count?

I manage two types of products (IO cards & entry level
servers) while others manage different servers and
yet another security software products.

We deal with different labs for these products and
we all came up with about the same ratios. About
130 people in the lab for about 3 writers.

The problem with any of these ratios is who is 
counted. There are firmware engineers, hardware 
testing, circuit design, board testing, marketing, 
software design, project managers, manufacturing 
scheduling, testers, quality assurance, the list goes 
on and on, including a bunch of people whose job I 
could not even figure out, but they are necessary
to create the end product, whatever it may be.

There are people in the background that are necessary
for the product to be produced, and narrowing it down
to "just" software developers presents an unrealistic
ratio of those involved.

Bottom line. Can you get docs out on time with an
acceptable level of quality? If no, you need more
people or better information processes, if yes,
count you lucky stars.

CB

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