Re: Have QA compile the help project?

["Martin, Chuck" <chuckm -at- EVOLVESOFTWARE -dot- COM>]

Not only should QA be able to compile your Help project, they should do
it as a matter of course. Actually, I have been in environments where QA
is ultimately responsible for the entire build process. Developers do
individual compiles when needed (and that included compilation of Help),
but QA is responsible for maintenance of the latest versions of source
files and the creation of the major revisions that will go through the
formal testing process.

I have done the same thing, but in Visual Source Safe. (You are using
source control for your source documents, aren't you?)

Besides, giving one person control (or one position, should that
particular person leave), minimizes the confusion you experience. The
focus for builds of the entire product is always at one consistent
point. There is no "need" to have control over the Help system until the
final compiled system is delivered to be integrated with the app. It
should be integrated from the very beginning.

--
"You don't look American."
"Everyone looks American, because Americans are from everywhere."

- Doonesbury
Chuck Martin, Technical Writer
Evolve Software                  | Personal
chuckm -at- evolvesoftware -dot- com        | writer -at- grin -dot- net
www.evolvesoftware.com           | www.grin.net/~writer

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Lynda Straus [SMTP:Lynda_Straus -at- THEMONEYSTORE -dot- COM]
>
> My development team uses PVCS for storage/tracking of the source files
> for a Paradox-based application.  I create and maintain the online
> help
> for this application on my hard drive, with backups to a network
> drive.
>
> Background - sorta long, sorry:
> We now have mostly a new development staff, with resulting confusion
> (the old process was never documented) about the process of compiling
> and delivering individual application files to QA, then deploying to
> Production, using several directories out on multiple network servers.
> Development has decided to have QA check out the files from PVCS,
> compile, then do acceptance testing on the newly-compiled files/whole
> application.  Deployment to Production is then from the approved QA
> subdirectories instead of the development subdirectories, which are
> generally only unit-tested and may not be the latest version of a form
> or file.
>
> My question:
> Development suggested having QA do my compiling over the network.  I
> said that it couldn't work, first, because there are problems when
> compiling over a network (they asked, what?, and I didn't know, I just
> heard it here on the listserv) and second, because of all the project
> settings, troubleshooting, etc., involved.  They weren't impressed.
>
> I need reasons why the help author *only* should be doing the work up
> to
> the point of delivery.  OR, if anyone is handing over a
> ready-to-compile
> folder (mine's 480 files, 10MG before compiling, and one file, 780KB
> after compiling) to the QA staff, please let me know, and how well
> does
> it work?
>
> Thanks much,
> Lynda Straus
> lynda_straus -at- themoneystore -dot- com
>
> ~~
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