Re: Ratio of Programmers (or Manuals) to Writers in Software Documentation

[Marc Santacroce <santa -at- TFS -dot- COM>]

At  8:55 PM 3/30/95 -0500, Howard wrote:
>On Thu, 30 Mar 1995, Tamara Peters wrote:

>> We are trying to appropriately staff a software development group with
>> writers. One manager wants to know what an "average" ratio of writers to
>> programmers would be. The software has a history of being under-documented
>> for quite a few years, and is undergoing the transition from character-based
>> and proprietary to GUI and open systems.
>>
>> Can anyone offer personal experience or references to research in this area?
>>
>> Thanks!!
>In my current shop there are about 40 coders and lil old me. In my last
>shop there were about 100 coders and 2 of us twirlers. Current shop is a
>commercial development environment and the last gig was a corporate HQ
>of an insurance company. Be interesting to see if 40 or 50 to 1 is "average."
============
I'm a little puzzeled as to why the number of writers is necessarily tied
to the number of developers, (as opposed to the amount/type of material to
be written).

=======================

M_a_r_c_ A. _S_a_n_t_a_c_r_o_c_e_________________________
Technical Writer/Trainer        TRW Financial Systems, Inc.
300 Lakeside Dr.                Oakland, CA 94612-3540
santa -at- tfs -dot- com                   santacroce -at- aol -dot- com

"All I want is a chance to prove that money can't buy happiness."