Re: Walk-throughs

[Dawn-Marie Oliver <Dawn-Marie -at- XPENSE -dot- COM>]

> Kate,
>
> I've conducted walkthroughs for manuals before.  One of the key
> elements,
> I've found, it to keep on track.  Run the meeting with a tight hand
> (although
> not heavy).
>
> The last walkthrough I did was huge, about 400 pages over several
> books.
> I did it in pieces.  First, I handed out a chapter, told them to mark
> it up, and
> bring it to the meeting.
>
> At the first meeting, I set my expectation:  everyone would attend
> (PMs, QA,
> developers, and another documentation person).  Everyone would read
> and make comments.  That there would be no "working ahead" -- in other
> words, I didn't pass out a chapter until that one was finished, at the
> end
> of the meeting.
>
> And most importantly, I explained the benefit to the company:
> extremely
> tight documentation, done in small enough doses so that everyone
> _really_
> looked at each page, not just the first few and rush through the rest
> of the
> book because it's due.
>
> Then, I basically sat there and said:  "Anyone have a comment on page
> one?"
> "Page two?".  Sometimes, I had to go paragraph by paragraph.
>
> The really amazing thing was, it got the team organized and up to
> speed.
> My manager was not thrilled, since they thought it was wasting our
> time
> doing someone else's work.  But since no one was doing it, and I
> needed the
> result, I think it worked out OK.  And it got the team communicating.
> They
> actually discussed comments, and in a couple instances, both were
> wrong
> and a change was made in product!
>
> And of course, I baked a cake at the end.
>
> Just my 2 francs,
>
>       Dawn-Marie Oliver
>       dawn-marie -at- xpense -dot- com
>
>       These opinions are MINE.  My employer and I agree on that, and
> prefer it
>       that way.
>
>
>