RE: Butt-or-ego insulation query

Subject: RE: Butt-or-ego insulation query
From: John Posada <JPosada -at- book -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 29 Jan 2003 14:02:24 -0500


I should have mentioned...while you can include the below type of material
in the instruction, I mainly use the process for myself to help me write the
instructions. The diagramming is so that I'm sure I don't forget or assume
anything.

-----

>How many of you would likely have caught the omission
>that embarrassed our customer?
>
>Is this one of those "you live and learn" situations,
>or is it "a competent and thorough TW would have
>covered all the scenarios that a customer would
>encounter"?? I confess that his situation never even
>crossed my mind.

The trick is not to think of every permutation, but to develop a process of
defining the procedure so each permutation is addressed automatically.

I'm a big fan of visual logic decision trees which I do in Visio to help me
determine how to write the instructions.

It will be tough to visualize in text, but example:

1) Do you have a token
Yes - Initialize it and go to step 3
No - Go to step 2

2) Do you Need a token
Yes - Contact xxx and when received, go to step 1
No - Got to End

John Posada
Senior Technical Writer
Barnes&Noble.com
jposada -at- book -dot- com
NY: 212-414-6656
Dayton: 732-438-3372



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