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RE: Compare and Contrast Doc Group Performance -- What's aWorld-ClassDoc Group Look Like?
Subject:RE: Compare and Contrast Doc Group Performance -- What's aWorld-ClassDoc Group Look Like? From:Fred Ridder <docudoc -at- hotmail -dot- com> To:<jlshaeffer -at- aol -dot- com>, <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Wed, 12 Mar 2008 11:16:10 -0400
Jim Shaeffer wrote:
> Then, the question seems to become, is this lack of information
> and of common assessment methodologies unique to Technical
> Writing? The manager's original question implied that it is possible
> to make such comparisons in other areas (software development,
> manufacturing, etc.).
> Or are the same challenges found, in reality, in any attempt at
> benchmarking against other organizations?
In manufacturing and in software development, defects are clear-cut.
A manufactured product meets its specs or it doesn't. A code module
performs according to the design spec or it doesn't. This makes the
defects easy to identify as defects, easy to categorize as to severity
and type, and easy to count, all of which makes it relatively easy to
collect and analyze metrics. There's still a challenge in comparing the
metrics from one organization to those of another because of
differences in overall operational methodology (e.g. how comprehensive
an organization's specs are), but at least the approach to metrics
is objective and comparable.
In the case of information products, quality is a largely subjective
assessment. Yes, there are clear-cut defects that can be identified
and tracked--things like wrong information, missing/omitted information,
typos, etc. But many of the real quality differentiators are things like
ease of use (e.g. organization of information, navigation affordances,
index), understandable and unambiguous expression of the information
(e.g. clear writing, standardized terminology), and suitability for the
reader's need (e.g. audience analysis, task analysis, information design).
Each of these factors is a spectrum, requiring a judgement call as to
the quality level. These important quality factors cannot be reduced
to the kind of go/no-go (acceptable/defective) decision that makes
metrics easy.
Fred Ridder
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