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Subject:Re: TECHWR-L Digest - 5 Aug 1994 to 6 Aug 1994 From:Typo? What tpyo? 07-Aug-1994 1054 <jong -at- TNPUBS -dot- ENET -dot- DEC -dot- COM> Date:Sun, 7 Aug 1994 10:58:01 EDT
Barb Philbrick <barb -dot- philbrick -at- PCOHIO -dot- COM> says of measuring
documentation by support-call rates, "I hope they differentiate
between software problems and document problems. Overall, their
documentation is good, except where they happily tell you about
features that don't work."
I am willing to live with overall rates. The documentation is part of
the product, or so we say when trying to establish our value as
technical communicators; if we document a nonexistent feature, whether
it's our fault or the engineers', we ought to live with the
consequences. However, I would prefer a more finely screened list of
calls.
Overall, measuring support-call rates is a fine way to demonstrate
value. In her STC-funded study of the value of technical
communicators, Joanne Hackos found a number of well-documented cases
where documentation-only product releases resulted in a significant,
quantifiable reduction in support costs, which can be credited as
value added (or at least costs reduced) for the product.
