RE: Telecom equipment doc standards?

["Higgins, Lisa" <LHiggins -at- carrieraccess -dot- com>]

> I have a publication called "Engineering and Installation 
> Documentation Guide" published by AT&T (Bell Systems) in March > 1978.
This publication provides product documentation 
> guidelines/requirements (not sure which) for
> telecom equipment manufacturers. 
<...>
> *	Does a later version of this guide exist?

Yes. I think this has been updated as recently as the 90s.

> *	Is this guide still applicable for today's telecom equipment
> documentation?

No. If this is the document I'm thinking of, it's a nightmare. It's one of
the most user-hostile standards I've seen. Very much a 'secret handshake'
sort of standard, designed more to advertise the fact that you're a telco
insider than to actually educate or inform.

Is this the standard that has all of the cross references within procedures
and ends every procedure with "STOP. YOU HAVE COMPLETED THIS PROCEDURE"?

> *	What documentation guidelines are used by other telecom 
> equipment manufacturers?

The competitive telecom field is still relatively young, so there aren't any
standard standards. I'm not sure what all is out there now, but everywhere
I've been except for Lucent has had either no standards or the homegrown
variety. (And I never used those icky Bellcore standards at Lucent, either.)

> *	Where can I find other documentation guidelines 
> specific to telecom equipment?

I'm gonna do a turnaround and tell you to take a look at that Bellcore
standards doc. Do it with a very critical eye, but look through the required
information in that standard to get an idea of the sort of information
you'll want to include. 

From there, I'm afraid you're on your own, although you can certainly apply
more general standards for technical docs.

Lisa.