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Subject:RE: Documentation estimates From:"Nathan Howard" <nathan -dot- howard -at- workcoverqld -dot- com -dot- au> To:<techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Tue, 19 Dec 2006 10:23:05 +1000
Hi All,
This is my first post here but I thought it was as good as any to chime
in....
There is a standard for documentation development in a software context
(ISO/IEC 15910:1999 "Information Technology - Software User
Documentation Process") that says on average 6 hours per page (hardcopy
pages that is...) is a good estimate when information is 'undeveloped'
(ie you have to get it from people's heads or some technical design
somewhere). The 6 hours is from start to finish and includes:
- interviews and research
- draft writing
- creation of diagrams
- editing, proofing and finalisation
So when I do page count estimates, I simply multiply by 6 hours to get
an approximate estimate of how long the project will take from go to
whoa. This all fits neatly into a gantt chart so that I can tell
management when I need other people's time throughout the project.
This estimation takes into account everything involved in writing and
makes the 'word count' issue a non-issue.
Hope that helps.
btw - I am a tech writer based in the IT department of an insurance
firm in Brisbane, Australia.
Quoth Dori Green:
>I do remember that many years ago there was an article in the STC
Journal
>suggesting that as a _rough_ average, the figure of 7 pages per day
could
be
>expected from a good tech writer.
It seems that most standards are based on page count. Does anyone
estimate by word count?
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