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Subject:docs fitting into development From:"Alex Silbajoris" <alsilba -at- hotmail -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 30 Jan 2002 20:22:10
Yesterday I amusedly watched my manager and a project leader butting heads
over this issue. First, for background, our development group "finishes"
modules and turns them over to our internal QA group. If they pass, they
then go on to a client QA group. Our doc group has always begun to document
the interface (via hands-on testing) beginning from the time our QA group
gets the material.
The project leader (new to the company) requested that the documentation be
complete when our QA group gets the modules. I told him that as long as the
materials are still in development, it's too soon to take a snapshot of
them. My manager told him that we document what comes out of our QA, so the
doc accurately reflects what goes to the client QA (not what the client
design specifies, or what the code says, but what the interface actually
does).
The amusing thing about the project manager's view is how it completely
ignores the time required to document the materials. In that view, if the
development is finished, why wouldn't the documentation be finished at the
same time?
For the heck of it, I went ahead and tried to capture some interface
elements I would need for the documentation. I found tables without data,
fragments of java appearing on the screens, and my favorite of all - a popup
error message that said DANG and nothing more.
(This reminds me of a line by Groucho Marx, in the role of Captain
Spaulding, about taking pictures.)
- A
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