Tehcnical Writers and Software Project Management

[Rod McIntosh Shand <rms -at- BRAEGEN -dot- COM>]

I am not a technical writer, I am a software project
manager, and I have subscribed to this list (TECHWR-L)
because I have long believed that technical authors, and the
user manuals they produce, are of particular value in the
management and control of software projects. I have found
that user manuals, written early in a project (well before
coding or even detailed design begins), are particularly
valuable for ensuring that the right system is built, and in
estimating the time and cost to build it. I wonM-~Rt elaborate
on the theme, because one paper on the subject will be
appearing in IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
in June and another in September (D.V.). Among others who
have written on this topic in publications that may be
accessible and familiar are:

Settle L., "Technical writers as technical resources". In:
Proceedings of the 29th International Technical
Communication  Conference ppT-64 - T-66.  1982

Barr R., "How to write your user manual before the
programmers write the software - and why you should". In:
Proceedings of the 37th International Technical
Communication Conference ppWE123 - WE125. 1990

Conklin J.J., "The next step: an integrated approach to
computer documentation". Technical Communication 40(1):89 -
96 1993.

There is also a small but supportive body of papers in the
software engineering literature.

My purpose in posting this message is to ask readers who
have had experience of writing user manuals (both
application and 'system' manuals) during the earliest stages
of a software project to correspond with me. I am interested
in learning:

-       What kind of project it was (business application,
        MIS,medical administration, embedded system etc).

-       The size of the project in terms of: person-years of
        effort; elapsed time; cost;.number of expected users;
        thousands of lines of code.

-       The software development methods used (software life-
        cycle   model; analysis or design methodology;
        languages)

-       Whether the early production of user manuals was a
        local standard, was tried once for a specific project
        or happened by accident.

-       Whether the project was 'successful' or not. Did it
        end within schedule and budget, were the users happy
        with the outcome?

-       Whether the approach of writing the user manuals
        early was thought to be a useful one.

I will collate and summarise responses and, with the
agreement of correspondents, post the results here at a
later date. Please forward this message to any project
managers who might be able to provide relevant input.

Please send responses to me at: rod -at- braegen -dot- com

or by post to:  Rod McIntosh Shand
                83 Earl Grey Road
                Toronto
                Ontario
                M4J 3L6 Canada.

Many thanks for your time and attention.