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Re: Empiric studies on the impact of documentation
Subject:Re: Empiric studies on the impact of documentation From:sharipunyon -at- gmail -dot- com To:Peter Neilson <neilson -at- windstream -dot- net> Date:Tue, 26 Mar 2019 13:47:40 -0400
I love this post for the obscure history, and because someone was brilliant enough to measure shirt pockets.
> On Mar 26, 2019, at 1:39 PM, Peter Neilson <neilson -at- windstream -dot- net> wrote:
>
> Indeed. I agree that no objective measurements are possible.
>
> The only study I've ever seen was an informal survey, about 35 years ago, taken through mail-in cards attached to manuals published by Prime Computer. The user was to rate Prime's documentation against other named computer companies, and would receive a free pocket guide for the effort. The ratings were always "far better than IBM". (IBM's business model at that time still regarded training classes as a major source of revenue, so their manuals were deliberately obscure.)
>
> Prime's sales offices could request the printed manuals from stock so that they could use them as part of the sales effort. The method apparently worked quite well.
>
> Curiously, some of the sales offices also SOLD the manuals, which were charged to the Tech Pubs budget, to customers for cash. They kept the money, and used it to fund their office Christmas parties. This caused a tremendous and uncontrollable outflow of money from the Tech Pubs department.
>
> The pocket guides, by the way, were a direct copy in format from the similar and very popular cheat-cards produced a decade earlier by Teradyne. They were created by Teradyne's sole tech writer, Alexis Belash. Alexis went to the Brooks Brothers clothing store in Boston and measured the size of the pockets of men's shirts, so that the cards would fit in a pocket, unlike the huge IBM 360 Green Card (eventually the 370 Yellow Card). Prime's publication designer was a friend of Alexis.
>
>> On Tue, 26 Mar 2019 13:11:46 -0400, Robert Lauriston <robert -at- lauriston -dot- com> wrote:
>>
>> I don't see how such a study would be possible. Sales figures are
>> usually not published, and there's no objective way to measure the
>> quality of documentation.
>>
>>> On Tue, Mar 26, 2019 at 1:59 AM yehoshua paul <ysp10182 -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:
>>>
>>> Does anyone here have links to empiric studies on the impact of
>>> documentation? Bonus, if it's been peer reviewed
>>> I should have something like this bookmarked, but I don't.
>>> I have heard plenty of anecdotal stories about how good documentation made
>>> sales, and poor documentation lost customers, and also read various blog
>>> posts and opinion pieces on the subject. What I don't have is an actual
>>> study on the impact documentation has on sales - with numbers, percentages,
>>> and industries.
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