TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Despopoulos" <despopoulos_chriss -at- yahoo -dot- com>
> I have never worked in a position where cost was not a factor in deciding how
> many deliverables to create.
Same here, but I don't recall page count ever being the specific deciding factor
(perhaps because I usually encourage my teams to keep it as low as possible in
the first place). In my experience, cost is more commonly expressed as "we
can't afford to hire enough writers to do all that documentation in time to ship
the product." And, of course, the documents always have to be done in time to
ship the product on schedule, which is cost expressed in time rather than in
currency.
> It's been a long time since I've seen a loose cannon wreak havoc on a project
> plan
I've not seen much of that at all, perhaps because most of my experience with
software development has been software designed to control or process data from
a physical product. More commonly, my experience with extraneous features has
resulted from developers' misconceptions about what features are actually needed
to support product objectives due to erroneous initial research, and in the most
extreme cases, misconceptions about what will sell due to erroneous market
research. Sometimes a technical writer who has deep knowledge about the tech
and the needs of intended users can help clear up the first situation, but if
you find yourself in the second, you're probably doomed.
Are you looking for one documentation tool that does it all? Author,
build, test, and publish your Help files with just one easy-to-use tool.
Try the latest Doc-To-Help 2009 v3 risk-free for 30-days at: http://www.doctohelp.com/
Help and Manual 5: The all-in-one help authoring tool. Full support for
team authoring with multi-user editing - both directly and in combination
with VSS-compatible source control systems. http://www.helpandmanual.com/
---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-
