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----- Original Message -----
From: "Jeanne A. E. DeVoto" <jaed -at- jaedworks -dot- com>
> (I admit there are managers who would blame you anyway, despite
a clearly
> delineated published schedule...but they're not that common, at
least in my
> experience. The only time this hasn't worked for me is when I've
had no
> input into my schedule at all, but those situations have had
other, larger
> problems. "You VILL write a 1200-page manual in three days!"
tends to cause
> a high attrition rate, and not just among the writers.)
What we need is a code repository for technospeak, that takes all
the incoming documents, dissolves them into isolated words and
phrases, and then a peson can come to the main web page, check off
the topics needed, and have it randomly reassemble ten thousand
words that can be copied and pasted.
> Of course, it goes without saying that if the development
schedule slips
> and you can possibly make up the slack, you do it. There are
also
> situations in which the company *must* get something out the
door despite
> the development schedule slipping, and if the docs quality
suffers, oh well
> - so you do what you can in the time you have - but this
shouldn't be made
> out to be somehow your fault. Making your dependencies explicit
is one way
> of making sure you're not blamed for someone else's slip. That
doesn't seem
> to me like a bad goal or one that ought to be sneered at.
I wonder if , in your help files and programs, you don't put
something like:
"The freshest and most up-to-date version of this help/doc is
available here
-live url- and includes the most up to date FAQ, explanations,
examples, and improvements due to user feedback..
Í do wonder if I am missing something. Do your organizations have
web pages with boilerplate you
can use for your docs? Wouldn't it be a good idea to have a shared
resource like this? Maybe database driven,
with a full text index?
Brad Jensen
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