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Subject:Re: Is it just me? S/W doc question From:"Tamminga, Ernie" <et -at- DSC -dot- COM> Date:Mon, 2 Jun 1997 08:19:11 -0700
There is something to be said (fill in your own "something", though)
about the ability to add features almost on-the-fly. This DOES, though,
introduce new headaches into the TechWriter's job. One thing we're
experimenting with here is to have the development engineers' Data
Dictionary files available to writers (and others who need the info).
As long as one is trained in reading them, these things are inherently
more reliably up to date than a tech-specs document that an engineer has
to update separately from working on the code.
Of course, not all of the kinds of into that we need as writers are in
DD files... but at least seeing a change to a DD can alert you that
there's a new topic to go ask the engineer about.
The world of object-orientation and rapid-development environments has
not yet provided very well for the subworld (nether world) of tech
writing and product training.
Lifelong learning and all that...
--------
Ernie Tamminga
Director, InfoEngineering
Digital Sound Corporation
>
>Ginna Watts <gwatts -at- PIM -dot- BC -dot- CA> said:
>> I have a manager who said (really) "The whole point of rapid applic-
>> ation development is to get away from rigid specs. Now the developers
>> can just add features as they come to mind!" (Arghhhh....)
>
>I'd love to know how rapid this manager's projects ended up being.
>
>As I understand it, the point of rapid application development was to
>use prototyping early in the project to test the proposed design on
>users. Once the developers have mulched in their bright ideas and it's
>all been coded, it turns out to be too expensive to weed out even major
>design faults when inevitably they sprout during beta testing or later.
>
>Regrads
>
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