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Re: Has anyone ever written the user guide before the product was developed (coded)?
Subject:Re: Has anyone ever written the user guide before the product was developed (coded)? From:Gene Kim-Eng <techwr -at- genek -dot- com> To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Date:Thu, 11 Nov 2010 13:54:27 -0800
This has pretty much been the default MO for most places I have worked.
Initial document drafts are written from product specs and engineering
goals, and as the product works its way through development and testing,
discrepancies are resolved either by revising the design or the document.
I've never been in an environment where writers wait for engineers to throw
things over the wall at them when they're done designing. It would probably
drive me nuts.
Gene Kim-Eng
On Thu, Nov 11, 2010 at 12:51 PM, Vanessa ScottSabic <
vanessascottsabic -at- nanometrics -dot- ca> wrote:
> We had an interesting conversation with our manager today and since we are
> about to begin work on a new product the idea was proposed that we try to
> write the user guide before the product is coded so that the developers
> design what we have documented instead of us documenting what they have
> designed. Of course, this does not mean that we dictate the design and
> functionality of the product but the idea is that we could be proactive
> rather than reactive and also help the developers.
>
> Our first step was to research this idea and see what
> information/experiences we could find. I have done some preliminary
> research
> and I did not find much at all about this.
>
> Has anyone tried anything like this? Would anyone be willing to share your
> experiences/tips? Can anyone point me to some resources?
>
>
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