Re: Modular products...

["Peter Neilson" <neilson -at- windstream -dot- net>]

I seem to remember having been in this situation, and we resolved it  
handily by treating the "don't have" modules as the "you might want to  
get" modules. Assuming that you can clink on something to see the  
documents, then the don't-haves are greyed out, and if you click on them  
you get an invitation to arrange for a demo or for purchase. Occasionally  
they are "mutually exclusive--if you have the Y module you cannot use the  
X module." So you just make it say that.

The key is to make the documentation sufficiently integrated into the  
software, automatically configuring like any other aspect of the module,  
such as library or database requirements.

The alternative, that I've seen in a few products, is for the docs to lag  
by a release or two. This method eliminates the need to match the docs to  
the product at the last minute or in the nitty details. The customer  
service people take up the slack. An economic model that accounts the cost  
of customer service into pricing can help; one that bills customer service  
as a feature can do quite well, until the competition catch on and skewer  
you with it.

On Fri, 11 Jan 2013 08:25:24 -0500, Sarah Blake <sarah -dot- blake -at- arieso -dot- com>  
wrote: