What do we do all day? WAS: Now is the winter of our dis-CONTENT (was Content vs. Style)

Subject: What do we do all day? WAS: Now is the winter of our dis-CONTENT (was Content vs. Style)
From: "Lisa A. Roth" <roth -dot- lisa -at- jimmy -dot- harvard -dot- edu>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2002 08:31:32 -0500


My company is a non-profit cancer research center that develops and conducts clinical trials.

My position here is a bit of a catch-all. I document just about anything that CAN be documented here, including company policies, database relations, software that was developed in-house, procedures for handling regulatory materials, data processing procedures, procedures for handling drugs, auditing guidelines, probably some APIs that we'll have to develop to integrate a new system that we just purchased, and, of course, the kitchen sink.

I also offer training to both my team and occasionally to the entire staff, and I answer a LOT of tech support-type questions such as "The thingy isn't working, what do I do?"

I must say that it makes for a great variety. I never get the feeling of being stuck in a rut because there is always something new and a little bit different to do next, which suits me very well.

It's been interesting to read about what the rest of you are doing, so I figured I'd offer my 1 cent. (Remember -- we're a non-profit!)

--Lisa


At 11:44 AM 11/20/2002 +0000, you wrote:

Jim,

This must be the arguement that you are using to keep yourself in work. Applying Paretian analysis to your comment:
What you have written covers the questions of 20% of your audience
This means that to answer the questions of the other 80% you will need to write the other 80% of the documentation as well!

Deadline, what deadline?

Regards,
Ant

Jim Shaeffer wrote:

I agree with Mike Bradley (quoted below) and with the other advice I've seen posted so far.
However, you do use the word "mostly". Documenting for our
typical users is good, but if non-typical users are going to cause 80% of the support calls, shouldn't our documentation target them? Focusing on the typical user may not be the best way to maximize the value of our work.


Lisa A. Roth
ECOG
900 Commonwealth Ave
Boston, MA 02215
Phone: (617) 632-3610
Fax: (617) 632-5414




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References:
Documenting for the non-typical user? WAS: Fields arranged as a s entence: From: Jim Shaeffer
Re: Documenting for the non-typical user? WAS: Fields arranged as a s entence: From: Anthony Davey

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