RE: Address this. . .

Subject: RE: Address this. . .
From: "McLauchlan, Kevin" <Kevin -dot- McLauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com>
To: Gene Kim-Eng <techwr -at- genek -dot- com>, "techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:45:56 -0500

This is one of those "we've always done it this way" things.

In our case, our Release Notes have always stated
- what is supported (hardware, software, firmware
versions for components); in other words, what
constitutes this release,
- what operating systems/versions are supported to
run the software client portions,
- what the new features are,
- any notes about incompatibility, special
circumstances, cautions,
- stuff that didn't make it into the main docs but
might be important to know,
- what issues/bugs have been fixed, and
- what outstanding issues could not be fixed at this time.

Separately, we do have a trouble-ticket system for
customers, and they can indeed look up the status
of their own issues - not sure what access they
have to other customers' issues. There are privacy
concerns - we can't be a source of competitive
"business intelligence" among our competing customers.

But while those customer-generated issues are brought
into the working database (MKS) that developers and
testers use, there are also lots more bugs that need
to be tracked, including:

- some discovered by our field engineers
- some discovered by our developers while working
on something else
- some discovered by our testers when they modify
or add to test cases
- some discovered by our testers while they are
in pre-release testing of newly-developed h/w,
s/w, and f/w.... not to mention builds issues
- marketing/product-manglement-inspired features
- etc.

Many of those never see the light of day outside
the company, while others - that no customer
specifically asked about - are made public because
they could affect customers and we want them to
hold off, or employ workarounds until we can kill
a bug.

Anyway, I know that some will say that any "what's new"
stuff should go in the main docs - for me that's
mostly all WebHelp - but I don't use such docs for
announcements. I just write 'em matter-of-factly
as "this is the way it is as you find it". Yes, I
do wave a flag if there's a change between versions
that would have a significant effect on existing
customers/users, but that's on a per-activity basis.
"The xyz feature might affect your existing scripts..."
"ABC algorithms no longer default to xxx key-size,
for security reasons." Or, similarly, "The evolving
FIPS 140-2 standard now prohibits such'n'such algorithms
or key sizes, therefore the system makes them unavailable
if it is operating in 'FIPS-mode'." "Versions of JJJ
older than x are no longer supported."

- K

> -----Original Message-----
> From:
> techwr-l-bounces+kevin -dot- mclauchlan=safenet-inc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr
-l.com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+kevin.mclauchlan=safenet-> inc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of Gene Kim-Eng
> Sent: Friday, March 12, 2010 12:06 PM
> To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Subject: Re: Address this. . .
>
> I'll second this. Don't mention the unresolved issues in the
> release notes if
> you can avoid them; concentrate on the resolved ones. If
> policy dictates that
> they must be listed, describe them as known but unresolved.
> You will already be
> annoying the person who originally reported the issue enough
> by saying it hasn't
> been resolved without rubbing salt in the wound by saying you
> haven't even
> bothered to look into it.
>
> Gene Kim-Eng
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Bill Swallow" <techcommdood -at- gmail -dot- com>
> .> Ah, interpretation... I'm not going to answer your
> question. Instead
> > I'll just offer advice:
> >
> > Don't include unresolved bugs in the release notes.
> >
> > does your company have an online bug base? Do customers have the
> > ability to log in and see the status of their reported bugs? If not,
> > look into it. If so, your work is done (with regard to unresolved
> > bugs).
> >
> > IMHO, release notes should focus on what IS in the release
> and not on
> > what isn't.
> >
> > I'd personally not like to look at the ingredients list on a box of
> > Froot Loops to see "Non-Ingredients: real fruit, ground beef, lamb's
> > tongue, lard, wood chips, roofing tar..."
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Follow-Ups:

References:
Address this. . .: From: McLauchlan, Kevin
Re: Address this. . .: From: Bill Swallow
Re: Address this. . .: From: Gene Kim-Eng

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