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Subject:RE: Information Mapping From:MAGGIE SECARA <SECARAM -at- mainsaver -dot- com> To:TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 17 Nov 1999 11:21:37 -0800
I've never had any trouble convincing managers or whoever of the virtues of
the info mapping format as well as the approach. Of course, I usually show
it to them in action, rather than try to explain it without examples. On
this current position, the old manual was just bloody awful. It was little
more than the specs, massaged slightly. When I started this job, they
thought all they needed was for me to update the manual with new
information, which was practically impossible given the way the thing was
organized. So I just dove in, and started excavating. Once they saw the
difference, they were in awe <g> Oh yeah, and our customers like it too.
On the other hand, as Jim, says, the basic principles of "chunking" and so
on are useul no matter how you lay out the page. I know I'm not using the
(tm) version of Information Mapping myself exactly, although it's pretty
close. I had a manager once who had just been through the whole (horribly
expensive) course and was quite firm about that being the style we were
going to use. I've been addicted to it ever since.
Maggie Secara
secaram -at- mainsaver -dot- com
"All the world's a stage, Mick, but some of us are dreadfully
under-rehearsed."
> ----------
> From: Jim Cort[SMTP:jcort -at- totaltel -dot- com]
>
> My experience has been that the principles upon which Information Mapping
> is
> built are sound and quite helpful in putting together a usable document.
>
> The stumbling block has always been the idiosyncratic format it adopts. I
> have always found this a hard sell to managers and VPs. If you can get
> management to agree to use this formatting, it's a fine method and should
> work very well.
>
> I usually produce my documents pretty much according to IM principles
> without using the full-blown IM approach.
>
