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Anthony Markatos <tonymar -at- hotmail -dot- com> asked:
[I]f quality documentation takes time and has a minimum number of pages, why
do all the Technical Writing experts advocate estimating techniques based
upon page count?
Steven Jong responded:
At one level this is simply a flawed syllogism. The measure of document
quality is not size, either short or long.
Tony Markatos responds:
Quality documents have a minimum number of pages irregardless of whether the
required minimum is 5000 pages or 5 pages.
Steve Jong said:
In our profession, the output is pages (or their e-equivalent). I can hardly
imagine any other way to estimate how long a project will take or how many
people it will require (which are process questions).
Tony Markatos:
I have found that the correlation between page count and quality & time to
be low. Often very low. There are much better estimating methods (i.e.,
methods that better fit within the tenants of the Capability Maturity
Model). My approach is as follows:
1.) I create data flow diagrams to "flush-out" all essential tasks and
their interrelationships. (Often, I find that proper scoping-out of the
project is the most important thing that has to be done in creating
estimates.)
Note: A task oriented analysis approach is very easily translated into a
very task oriented organization for the manual -- the best type of
orgainzation.
2.) Through multiple iterrations, I re-partion the data flow diagrams until
each task is "chunked" to require about a page of written procedure --
giving me the total number of pages required.
3.) I know from past experience about how long it takes to create a page of
text.
3.) Presto! Through a very rigorous engineering approach, (not a
touchy-feely guess based upon past experience), I have an estimate that I
feel very confident with.
Tony Markatos
(tonymar -at- hotmail -dot- com)
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