Re: Validating manuals - PART II

[Mary Arrotti <mary_arrotti -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

This sounds less like your docs are being validated against the reqs and more like they're being used as a testing tool to verify that the UI conforms to the UI requirements. And, as a result, you're being asked to change your docs so that QA can do this more easily. Is that correct?
   
  I do support collaboration with different groups & help out with QA as I can. But I really view this as a poor methodology - at least based on my understanding. 
   
    This is the actual relationship as I see it:  Requirements > UI >  Doc. QA should verify that the UI conforms to the requirements and then that your doc conforms to the UI. To go from requirements to doc doesn't make sense to me (unless you're writing before there is any UI).

   
  It seems that with this methodology - this scenario is possible:
  Reqs say A
  UI shows B
  Doc shows A (based on Reqs)
  QA checks - UI & Doc are different
  Doc changes from A to B
  QA checks - Reqs and Doc are now different
  Doc changes from B to A
  UI changes from B to A
   
  To me, this would make more sense:
    Reqs say A
  UI shows B
    QA checks - Reqs & UI different
    UI changes from B to A
  QA checks - doc shows A - same as Reqs and UI
   
  Sorry - I can't give you any suggestions for how you can set up your docs in this effort. I've never worked in or heard of any organization working this way.



    
Michelle Vina-Baltsas <Michelle_Vina-Baltsas -at- datascope -dot- com> wrote:

  Thanks to all who responded to my post. I want to clarify that QA is not 
only validating that all the functionality is documented in the manual 
based on the UI, they are also validating that the UI requirement was 
interpreted correctly by the writer (that would be me). So, if the UI says 
the XYZ button should be blue, and the Ops book says it will be green, 
that's would be an issue. However you slice it, it's a lot of extra work 
for me! 

Is there a smart way to do this? Does anyone have to do anything like this 
for their QA departments or am I the only UNLUCKY soul. Maybe I can 
suggest that they just validate that the UI document table of contents be 
captured in the Ops book rather than every single requirement. 

Thank you,
Michelle Vina-Baltsas
Technical Writer
Datascope Corporation, Patient Monitoring
201.995.8350
michelle_vina-baltsas -at- datascope -dot- com
       
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