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Subject:Re: The End Of Technical Writing From:Tony Markos <ajmarkos -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Fri, 29 Oct 2004 11:34:13 -0700 (PDT)
--- Ned Bedinger <doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com> asks:
2. How do you account for the power of DFDs to
capture end-user tasks? My experience is that many
tasks are not related to data flow.
Tony Markos responds:
In any task, there are inputs and outputs. Inputs and
outputs can be data, or other things such as tooling
and materials required for manual tasks.
--- Ned Bedinger <doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com> asks:
Consider a procedure named "Troubleshooting an
unresponsive server." Would you automatically assume
a data view of the diagnostic tasks (checking
configurations, pinging hosts, restarting services)
and go from there?
Tony Markos responds:
Yes. My educational background is Industrial
Engineering, the study of people doing tasks. Data
flow diagrams are most definetly applicable for
people-doing-troubleshooting tasks. SomePossible
inputs for your example: Reference manual data,
responses from diagnositic software, existing
configurations - documented or manually observed.
--- Ned Bedinger <doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com> asks:
You descxribed DFD as a top-diown approach to a
system and task analysis. In what sense is it
top-down?
Tony Markos responds:
Diagrams can have child diagrams, which can have child
diagrams, etc, etc.
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