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Subject:Re: Can I Have Your Opinions (Long text) From:"Doug, Data Librarian at Ext 4225" <engstromdd -at- PHIBRED -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 9 Nov 1994 09:33:01 -0600
To join the fray, using this bit by Margaret as a springboard:
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I've also heard talk that with better interfaces, better systems and more
proficient users, the need for hardcopy or even online documentation/help
will be dramatically reduced. In the future, we will all be designing
user interfaces, multi-media or using our writing talents in other fields.
(Is this like the paperless office theory?)
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No, it's not like the paperless office; I think this one is for real. I
think the lines between what we call business analysis, system analysis,
application development, documentation, training and system support are
collapsing. It's not so much that the need for documentation will go away
as that it will become so merged with the system as to be
indistinguishable from it.
In place of what we today would call an "application" will be this "thing"
that facilitates work. The "thing" will contain all the information we
need to do a job, and carry out our instructions on some tasks. For
example, Ford is working on a system that steps mechanics through a
variety of troubleshooting and repair procedures, even going so far as
reproducing the procedure in video and sound when necessary. It can check
part stocks, and in the future it will be able to order and bill, too.
Here at Pioneer, we're working on a system that gives sales representatives
competitive information on corn hybrids, (which can be subset and sorted in
different ways) business information on customers and prospects, as well
pricing and inventory information. Tellingly, the interface metaphor used
is a book.
Are these applications? Documents? Who cares? I think they're the wave of
the future, and they must be produced by a team of experts from various
disciplines, including technical communication. Much of the information
communicated by the system has to be *written down* at some point, even if
it's ultimately read by the narrator. Writers are still there, it's just
that we get included in the guts of the system, rather than an add-on like
"help" or documentation.
Doug "There are no small projects,
ENGSTROMDD -at- phibred -dot- com just incredibly bad initial
estimates."
