Re: 22 page manual for $400,000

[Lin Laurie <linlaurie -at- EMAIL -dot- MSN -dot- COM>]

Several years ago, I had the opportunity to create several manuals for the
government. I found that before you can write a manual, you have to
document that you can write a manual, that you have processes and standards
in place to edit, create graphics, etc. in support of the manual, and so
on. After that document is approved, you have to write a document plan for
the manual. Once that document is accepted, you can begin writing the
manual. Just this part of the process takes several months as many people
in the government have to review the documentation you submit, and will
always have some revision that adds another round to the process.

With the other requirements that I had to meet in order to get the manual
accepted by the government, it took over a year to get a hundred page
document accepted. Ironically, each piece of equipment they were purchasing
had perfectly good manuals already written, that had much more information
in them than mine did. What the government wanted was one manual that
covered a set of equipment packaged together, writen in a horrible style
that their users were used to (that was the justification to continue with
the horrible style of writing, organization, and so on).

I found the process very frustrating and grueling. I now understand why the
government purchases $900 ashtrays and other anomolies.

BTW, at the end of my experience I learned that after all my work, the
equipment was being purchased to sit in a warehouse for probably two years
before the government could put together the classes and other requirements
necessary to begin dispersing the equipment for field use.

Our tax dollars at work.

Lin



-----Original Message-----
From:   Huber, Mike [SMTP:mrhuber -at- SOFTWARE -dot- ROCKWELL -dot- COM]
Sent:   Wednesday, June 03, 1998 6:49 AM
To:     TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
Subject:        Re: 22 page manual for $400,000

My WAG:

The government had very detailed specs for the manual, that required the
company to write one from scratch. The specs changed at the end of the
process, requiring a much shorter and more basic manual, but the money
had already been spent.

---
Office:mike -dot- huber -at- software -dot- rockwell -dot- com
Home:nax -at- execpc -dot- com


>-----Original Message-----
>From:  David Chisma [SMTP:chisma -at- C031 -dot- AONE -dot- NET -dot- AU]
>
>I noticed this piece on
>http://www.vancouversun.com/newsite/news/1752501.html and am curious
>whether anyone on the list has the lowdown on the techwriter's side of
>the story.
>
>Jim Beatty, Sun Legislature Bureau Vancouver Sun
>                            VICTORIA -- The B.C.
>                            government blew $400,000 on a
>                            photo radar manual that is so
>                            elementary it tells users an
>                            image of the sky indicates the
>                            camera is pointed too high, the
>                            Opposition Liberals said
>                            Monday.
>
>                            "It's a rip-off," Liberal critic Gary
>                            Farrell-Collins said of the
>                            22-page guide. "You would think
>                            that the instruction manual on
>                            how to use the camera would
>                            have been included."
>
>