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Subject:Re: 10 Things All Technical Writers Should Do From:TechComm Dood <techcommdood -at- gmail -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Fri, 12 Nov 2004 15:35:40 -0500
> Data Flow Diagrams are a tool for documenting manual
> and/or automated procedure. In the Yourdon DFDing
> class that I took, the instructor made clear the point
> that DFDs were first utlized over fifty years before
> the computer was invented.
All fine and good.
> Back in the early 1890's there were no software
> functions, just people performing tasks.
Same thing with computers today. Got it.
> (FYI: Documenting procedure is a the major thing that
> TWs do.)
No, it's not. ;-)
> What makes DFDs so uniquely powerful at documenting
> procedure is that they result in a natural
> partitioning of a system of interacting tasks. All
> other procedural modeling techniques - including Use
> Cases - result in a forced artifical partitioning of a
> system of interacting tasks.
OK, can you spin that into the scope of documentation deliverables for
a IDE-integrated SDK?
Tony, I don't think any of us are challenging the usefulness of DFDs.
However, you have to allow for other solutions and approaches as well.
To do otherwise is very narrow-minded and limits the scope of your
impact and growth as not only a technical writer, but a business
professional.
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