RE: Any ideas for a presentation on the documentation process?

[Marv Cochrane <cochrane -at- tsufl -dot- edu>]

Lurker delurks.

Gee, there have been a lot of responses recommending you show them how
difficult it is to write a clear step-by-step instruction. I doubt they
will be impressed. Like, gee, you're trying to convince me it takes a
genius? I agree with: 

>After reading the creative ideas for this type of presentation, I'm still
>wondering what the purpose of the presentation is? Why do engineers and
>marketing personnel need to know the documentation process? Is this intended
>in some way to justify the amount of staff or resources the tech writers are
>using? I'm genuinely curious.
>

If your presentation is about a documentation process, you must have one.
Explain the flow from requirements to design docs to user docs and training
docs. Go on to configuration control, your role in the version release
process, and how upgrades are managed. Explain how, in translating
engineering-speak to user-speak, you are the first line of user-oriented
review of the product. You get the idea, you can probably fill in more.
Explain how these things are implemented in you work group. They will be
able to see how everything fits into a process that gets a product through
establishing requirements, getting design approved, and a release with
training and user documentation. 

Marv Cochrane, who did software documentation in a previous life.