Re: system administrators and documentation

Subject: Re: system administrators and documentation
From: Gene Kim-Eng <gene -at- genek -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 28 May 2003 06:42:44 -0700


At 08:04 AM 5/28/2003 -0400, Brian Das wrote:

Hi Gene,

You wrote, "If a customer inquired about any of the un or semidocumented
features, the reply they got was "I can connect you to a Product Support
Engineer for a quote on a custom application.""

I'm confused!: ) How it that scenario is very different from mine? I think
in both cases, documents are designed to leave certain users' needs unmet,
and consultants are available to meet those needs.

The difference is the intent of the company. It wasn't that we saw the custom
applications as a source of revenue to be mined (though we were certainly
willing to do it), rather we had made a strategic decision that we were willing to
risk foregoing the revenue altogether because we didn't have the the writing
resources to include them as part of the base package (because there
wasn't enough of a market to ensure we'd get a return on the investment of
doing all of them upfront on the off chance that someone might use them).
And then there was the potential chilling effect that facing an additional
300 pages worth of documentation on features they'd never need might have
on the base users. As for meeting certain users' needs unmet, I think that
every product goes through some process of comparing those users' needs
to their revenue potential - or at least, it should.

Gene Kim-Eng




^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Robohelp X3, from eHelp, lets you quickly and easily create professional Help systems for all your Windows and Web-based applications, including Net.
Order RoboHelp X3 in May and receive a $100 mail-in rebate, PLUS
free RoboScreenCapture and WebHelp Merge Module.
Order RoboHelp today: http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.



References:
Re: system administrators and documentation: From: Andrew Plato
Re: system administrators and documentation: From: Gene Kim-Eng
Re: system administrators and documentation: From: Brian Das

Previous by Author: Re: system administrators and documentation
Next by Author: Re: ISO process writing
Previous by Thread: Re: system administrators and documentation
Next by Thread: Re: system administrators and documentation


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads