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Ryan Young said, "We're also working on defining what each guide should be.
The other tech
writer here has pushed for combining installation, configuration, and
common operator tasks into an "Operations" guide. I feel like that's a bad
idea as it makes users effectively search through two irrelevant guides. It
sounds like the consensus here would be to separate out those three topics?"
______________________________________
I think it depends on whether the installation and configuration, and other
operational activities are connected and who will be doing them. When I
worked on documentation for bank automation software, there were user
guides, administrator guides, and installation/ configuration guides.
The installation and configuration of a dedicated server and software that
ran the web application for a financial institution was installed by IT
professionals, and was usually done once, except for subsequent software
upgrades, also done by IT staff. The administration guide contained account
configuration instructions for the bank administrative staff who set up the
individual customer accounts. The user guides for the customers contained
account setup information for each customer to set up accounts for that
customer's employees authorized to use the banking application.
So my advice is to analyze each type of configuration and assign it to a
specific user role. After that analysis, consider the various roles, and how
they may overlap. Add then decide which roles require distinct configuration
instructions, and how you will deliver them.
Margaret Cekis, Johns Creek GA
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