Documenting a buggy feature (was: RE: techwr-l digest: April 30, 2002)

Subject: Documenting a buggy feature (was: RE: techwr-l digest: April 30, 2002)
From: Jim Shaeffer <jims -at- spsi -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 1 May 2002 10:20:55 -0400


It depends <grin> on the point of veiw.

>From a documentation management point of view:
Document it the way it is supposed to work and let the
real world catch up.

>From a user advocate point of view:
What are we doing releasing a product with a known bug?

>From a user service point of view:
Of course you let the user know that they may need a
workaround and what that workaround is.

>From a marketing point of view:
Don't use documentation to highlight flaws in our product.
Let the user work it out with tech support.

Confession: I usually take the documentation management
point of view. Many times our update or patch is in place
by the time the user gets around to the documentation.

Jim Shaeffer (jims -at- spsi -dot- com)

Patricia Blount [mailto:PATRICIA -dot- BLOUNT -at- ca -dot- com] asked:
> OK, so what have you done when faced with a feature that is
> at best, "buggy". Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
> If you write a procedure according to the way it's supposed
> to work (i.e., design intention), then your book is wrong at
> least part of the time.
>
> I'm wondering if the books should contain an alternative
> section, something like "What to do if this procedure fails
> to produce the desired result..."


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