Re: User Documentation in Agile Development Teams

["Peter Neilson" <neilson -at- windstream -dot- net>]

Fundamentally this is a high-level management issue. The underlying idea  
is that no money at all needs to be spent on documentation. It's been a  
recurring theme for decades, and what you see pushed forward as "Agile" is  
merely the latest incarnation. In the manufacturing business the problem  
is called "flavor of the month" and it's always some new scheme for  
reducing costs, such as "just in time," that is going to result in  
inexorable and possibly catastrophic failure.

Here's just one sample: The extruder had a half-million dollar pump screw,  
and they always kept two on hand. My wife watched as management eliminated  
the standing orders for them, believing that they could order a new one as  
needed. Lead time for the custom-made screw was six months. The cost of  
the ensuing down-time was far greater than that of tying up a million  
dollars in "unnecessary" spare parts.

Attitude from the shop floor, concerning each month's new flavor, was,  
"Just do your job, guys. We've seen 'em come, we've seen 'em go."

Your management and THEIR management need to see the wider picture. It's  
hard to push up from the bottom, and your very best option is to try to  
have your exit strategy in place for whenever you need it.

For your more immediate concern, it would not hurt to have e-mails from  
disgruntled customers, ten or twenty of them. Have them printed out. The  
folks who make the decisions STILL don't read anything unless it's printed  
on paper. Bring to meeting.

On Fri, 24 Mar 2017 10:40:04 -0400, Sue McKinney <smckinn2001 -at- gmail -dot- com>  
wrote: