Re: Documentation Quality and Standardization

[quills -at- airmail -dot- net]

Basically, under the most common strictures of quality systems, you can't.

To measure quality as it's applied in these systems you need concrete 
measurable criteria. What are the measurable criteria in a document that 
you can point to that indicates quality?

You can measure time to completion, but does that really measure quality 
of the document? No.

Quality measurement for a document is usually based upon satisfaction of 
need. Does the document impart the necessary information? Is it easy to 
read? Is it easy to find the information needed?

So do decide the quality of the documentation you can't depend entirely 
upon numerical measurements. You can try to use the index, table of 
contents, navigation system (hyperlinks), graphics, glossary, to point 
to how comprehensively you explain the information and enable the user 
to find the required information. But none of this can be quantified.

Scott

punit shrivastava wrote:
> Hi All,
> I have got the opportunity to work towards achieving Documentation Quality
> and Standardization in my documentation team.
> Would someone guide me on the following:
>
>    - What all we cover in deciding Quality of documentation?
>    - How do we go ahead with it?
>
> Please note that our organisation already has all other measures (Style
> guides, QA Team and documentation guidelines) in place. The effort is to
> improve the output quality within the team.
>
> Thanks in advance for your guidance.
> Punit S.
>   

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

ComponentOne Doc-To-Help 2009 is your all-in-one authoring and publishing 
solution. Author in Doc-To-Help's XML-based editor,  Microsoft Word or 
HTML and publish to the Web, Help systems or printed manuals. 
http://www.doctohelp.com

Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- 

To unsubscribe send a blank email to 
techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40web.techwr-l.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/ for more resources and info. 

Please move off-topic discussions to the Chat list, at:
http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/listinfo/techwr-l-chat