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Subject:Re: meaning & practice of a "doc freeze" From:"Simon North" <sintac -at- home -dot- nl> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 08 Apr 2004 15:47:10 +0200
Hi Stacy,
I don't know what everyone else does, but it's been my experience over
the past 28 years in software development that code freeze and doc
freeze are not as black&white as they sound.
Essentially, the doc freeze point is the cutoff for the addition/coverage of
new features. Like with code freeze, there are still last minute bug fixes
to be made, but no major structural changes are permitted. It's quite
easy to slip a new feature into the software at the last minute, or shuffle
the menus around a bit because someone has decided that it's better
that way. If you, as the writer, allow software development to keep
changing the software like that then you are either going to have to work
your fingers to the bone, or have a nervous breakdown. Docs freeze is
the point at which you 'decouple' the documentation from the software;
you then have your own production worries like formating, pagination,
indexing and media conversion. So, yes, you do have a final after the
freeze, you may even have several drafts after the freeze, like when you
have time for evaluation testing of the software with the documentation.
The final may not necessarily go back to the SMEs though, it may be
enough to just send it for editing or review by other people.
Have you tried the latest in Help Authoring from RoboHelp?
Try ROBOHELP X5 for Free - Now with Word 2003 support, Content
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