TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
I most recently used Data Flow Diagrams to rigorously
define the scope of a larger-scale federal government
system. Prior to my arrival on the scene, the primary
software contractor had spent $25 million in analysis,
but could only produce an incomplete and disjointed
system scope statement. The Congressional Budget
Office (CBO) knew the situation and told the primary
contractor that unless they could produce such
statement, the project would be canceled. The project
had reached a very high-level priority with the CBO.
The primary contractor had failed because, instead of
using DFDs to guide them to discover the essential
requirements that they did not know, they utilized a
technique that was only only good for modeling what
they already knew - Object Oriented Analysis
techniques.
It took me about 7 working days, using DFDs, to
produce the scope statement which got the CBO signoff
and, in important ways, provided the contractor with
the missing logic needed to enable the project to
progress. When you compare seven work days (at
typical TW contract rate) vs $25 million, it is easy
to see the power of DFDs!
I can provide other examples, but I still have some
Xmas shopping to do, so I have to stop here.
DFDs are not one of several ways to perform a rigorous
task/functional analysis. I'm sorry but there is no
other way than by following the flow of data to
flush-out that which essential but we do not know.
> Being somewhat bemused by your variations on the
> theme of DFDs as the
> most important tool in the tech writer's arsenal, I
> for one would
> welcome an example or two of how they have worked
> for you in the real
> world -- more information about the context in which
> you use them may
> help people here understand from whence your
> advocacy comes.
>
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
The all-new My Yahoo! - What will yours do? http://my.yahoo.com
ROBOHELP X5 - SEE THE ALL NEW ROBOHELP X5 IN ACTION!
RoboHelp X5 is a giant leap forward in Help authoring technology, featuring all new Word 2003 support, Content Management, Multi-Author support, PDF and XML support and much more! View an online demo: http://www.macromedia.com/go/techwrldemo
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archiver -at- techwr-l -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Send administrative questions to lisa -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
