RE: "If the docs are too good..."

["Lippincott, Rick" <Rick -dot- Lippincott -at- flir -dot- com>]

>So an SME I was talking to floated the ol' air biscuit that he "was
told
>by someone who'd been told that if the product docs were too good, that
>clients wouldn't purchase the training."  Any suggestions for snappy
>come-backs to that one?

It would seem to me that docs show -how- to use a system, but training
shows -why- you would use it. 

In training, I'd expect to be told an overview of the system features
and be given practice examples to explain how the system works. 

For example, I'm working on an operator's manual and a training guide
(two different documents) for a helicopter-mounted camera system that
features both low-light TV and infra-red imaging (which means two
separate camera systems). The display has the ability to fuse the two
images into one, in a ration as desired by the operator.

The operator's guide will explain how to control the mix of the two
images and how to set it for the optimum image. But it won't explain
-why- the operator might want to mix the images, or the conditions in
which you may want to mix more IR than video (or the other way around).
That information will be in the training guide.

--Rick Lippincott
  FLIR Systems
  Billerica, MA