Re: Documentation Phase in Software-Development Life Cycle

Subject: Re: Documentation Phase in Software-Development Life Cycle
From: Peter Neilson <neilson -at- alltel -dot- net>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2003 07:36:59 -0400


On Wed, 24 Sep 2003 05:39:55 +0000, Vlad Dracul <vladvampiredracul -at- hotmail -dot- com> wrote [in part]:

Those administering the development process have been requested to
incorporate a documentation phase into the release cycle so that
technical writers can work with a stable, tested product.
Unfortunately, this request has been turned down, and the reason
provided for this refusal is that the company follows a three-month
release cycle and hence has inadequate time for a dedicated
documentation phase.

Economically, the key is "first to market." The product must arrive
ahead of anything that the competition has that even remotely looks
like the intended product. Hence the release of vaporware. One
company I worked for announced the release of a product that was
so far ahead of the state of the art that it could not exist. The
press and even TV went wild, and the company's stock price went
sky-high. Various people made their secret money, as family members
sold stock. The ruse was discovered, and the price fell back to
normal. I was supposed to have been writing the documentation for
the thing, but there were, of course, no specs, no code, no nothing
from which to write except for a puff piece from Corporate
(dis-)Communications. I failed to understand that they wanted a
fake book, spent my writing time searching for the missing
information, and thus failed to produce anything.

It's common for documentation to be allocated zero time, or less,
for writing. If it's fancy printed books, with a ten-week lead
time, the scheduled time for writing and the press time often overlap.
I've been asked to make changes to material already approved for
press, and have always been able to counter with the penalty cost,
which usually includes a few weeks for rescheduling the press run.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

NEED TO PUBLISH YOUR FRAMEMAKER CONTENT ONLINE?
“Mustang” (code name) is a NEW online publishing tool for FrameMaker that
lets you easily single-source content to Web, intranets, and online Help.
The interface is designed for FrameMaker users, so there is little or no
learning curve and no macro language required! See a live demo that
will take your breath away: http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l3

---
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:
Documentation Phase in Software-Development Life Cycle: From: Vlad Dracul

Previous by Author: Re: Tech Writing Skills, College Degrees, Marketable Skills
Next by Author: Re: Writing about a product on a PDA
Previous by Thread: Documentation Phase in Software-Development Life Cycle
Next by Thread: Re: Documentation Phase in Software-Development Life Cycle


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


Sponsored Ads