Re: managing development docs

[Matt Danda <mdanda2 -at- YAHOO -dot- COM>]

Michael Collier wrote:
...I'd like to hear experiences from others who
are working or have worked on projects in the early stages of
development, and how they have used requirements and other development
docs in
producing user documentation and help. Any experiences, caveats, other
things I should be considering are appreciated....

My turn:
I would like to say (oh no!) that the biggest issue I have come across
is what to *do* with the extra time. Of course it is important to be
involved from Day One, but I have often found myself without enough to
keep me busy (or, at the least, *challenged*), as I wait for the
programmers to reach their milestones.

This extra time can be valuable for setting up standards, prototyping
future documents, getting oriented to the project, brushing up on
tools and skills, etc., but it can also be used to make coffee, to
walk around the office talking to people, or to even spend the morning
reading TECHWRL.

Despite the boredom sometimes incurred while waiting for a project to
get moving (I daydream sometimes of bursting into the project
managers' office, screaming, "Get on with it, man!"), it also allows
you the time to prepare for when the storm hits...and even work out
some worst-case project scenarios. You win some, you lose some.

Cheers from sunny Florida,
Matt



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