Re: Technical Reviews of On-line Help

[Tom Murrell <trmurrell -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

--- Cathy Arthur <carthur -at- ndigital -dot- com> is about to start an online help
project and wants to know how best to establish the review process for the
documentation.

<mytwocents>

Try doing two separate types of reviews. First, have the SMEs involved in
desktop reviews of the text. These reviews should focus on the technical
accuracy of the information: correctness, completeness, suitability, the same
sorts of things you would focus on with SMEs for other technical documentation.

Once the layout and organization work on the text is done--what information is
accessed from where in the online help--have a desktop/system combined review
to see that information has been properly positioned and allocated for the
various parts of the system, or however it will be accessed. I think this
should be a combination of desktop and system in whatever ratio will help
reviewers understand how the information will be accessible to the user and how
it will be organized.

The third step in this process would be QA testing and review. As the system is
tested, the online documentation should be tested in exactly the same way as
any other part of the system is tested. From a user's perspective, the online
help IS part of the system.

Each step of the way attacks a different part of the documentation development
and system development in a methodical way.

Hope this helps.
</mytwocents>

=====
Tom Murrell
Senior Technical Writer
Alliance Data Systems
Columbus, Ohio
mailto:trmurrell -at- yahoo -dot- com
http://home.columbus.rr.com/murrell/

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