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NetBrett Thorson wrote:
>
Further more, I am wondering how you people write these documents
without
> even having a product made that you can show them.
>
> So in the end, I guess what I am asking is how do we as tech writers
> discover what the user wants to do with the system, before they know what
> the system can do?
Amen to that! Trying to write documentation while the product is still
in the design phase is a bit difficult, but it seems to be the preferred
mode of operating at least in the SV. The last thing I worked on, I
had to work mainly from the technical specifications, filling in by
talking to the developer to see what was being added and deleted. The
best I could do was a skeleton doc, with some bits and pieces roughed
out based on existing docs for applications with similar features. Not
at all an efficient use of a writer's time, but you've got to be doing
something ;+)
