Re: Estimation of the number of pages to be written per day

Subject: Re: Estimation of the number of pages to be written per day
From: "Mike O." <obie1121 -at- yahoo -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2004 08:02:03 -0800 (PST)


I agree that page counts are usually not a useful metric. But sometimes
it's useful to count the total number of topics. I find that counting
topics provides a gross order-of-magnitude estimate that can be useful
in the scoping phase (also count the number of screenshots).

Of course, this assumes your topics will be correctly chunked and
fairly well normalized (i.e, one concept per topic). This chunking is
the part that is hardest to explain to non-writers. I'm not sure I
understand it myself, since I do it mostly by ear.

You can then look at your deadline and calculate how much time you have
to create each topic. Sometimes a rational quantitative estimate like
that can help sober up managers who figure the whole manual should be
whipped up in a few days.

Mike O.




__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail - Find what you need with new enhanced search.
http://info.mail.yahoo.com/mail_250

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

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.



Follow-Ups:

Previous by Author: Re: Outsourcing Tech Pubs
Next by Author: RE: layout duties
Previous by Thread: Re: Estimation of the number of pages to be written per day
Next by Thread: Re: Estimation of the number of pages to be written per day


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads