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Subject:Re: Cost of Documentation From:Chet Ensign <censign -at- INTERSERV -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 21 May 1996 09:53:08 -0700
Kent Newton points out that documentation can be justified as:
> (1) As a tool to close sales.
> (2) As a tool for decreasing support calls.
and points out that the only evidence he has is anecdotal -- as it is for most
of the rest of us.
Problem is that there's no overall notion of or view of the total process --
product creation to --> customer, who calls --> customer support, who aslo
can't find up-to-date data, hence gives --> customer wrong info, who then
messes stuff up, resulting in --> lawsuit, or
\
\
lost sale.
It is the absence of any ability to look at the overall process that makes it
difficult or impossible for us to justify documentation in concrete terms.
(And documentation is only one of the many impacted parts of the puzzle.)
Don't know how we go about analyzing processes, but if we could it would make
the whole product life cycle more manageable.
Best regards,
/chet
Chet Ensign
Home: 201-378-3472 censign -at- interserv -dot- com
Work: 201-971-0100, Ext. 161 censign -at- lds -dot- com
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