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Re how to tell whether the docs are doing any good, or are getting better
or worse: it should be possible to use Support stats to figure out some
info.
Support people generally have to keep painfully detailed information about
calls logged, topics, and related information. A few hours with the
support people might divulge things they track like where the actual
solution to the problem was found (in the docs, in a support database,
etc.), whether calls from one month or release to another seem to have
more to do with problems in the software, doing things wrong, not knowing
how to do things, not having any clue there even was documentation, etc.
And with that one could probably extrapolate whether each release of the
docs is improving, and what topics in the doc aren't as good as others.
That brings up another issue: who is the audience for the docs? Support is
more motivated to use the docs than customers, generally. They might also
be more likely to participate in doc testing.
I haven't done this particular thing but in theory it seems like it could
work.
Solveig
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
solveig -at- techwriterstuff -dot- com
"Tell Me About the Typos When Your Software Works."
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