Re: Why docs aren't tested

Subject: Re: Why docs aren't tested
From: Sharon Toll <SHARONT -at- LEONARDO -dot- LMT -dot- COM>
Date: Wed, 10 Aug 1994 09:35:37 CST6CDT

Karla McMaster writes:

>Mark Levinson wrote about why documentation doesn't get tested.

>** Another reason in some places is that by the time the software
> is frozen the development process has eaten up not only its own
> slack time but the hoped-for documentation time as well,
> and the product has got to get out the door PDQ or else.
> Each day's delay attributable to fine-tuning the
> documentation is a very visible immediate horror, while the
> future problems from inaccurate documentation are still well
> over the horizon. (In fact, in a properly underorganized
> company, they may never trickle back to HQ at all...)

>I know this phenomenon only too well...I have _never_ been in a situation
>where this was not the case. I have always been working for smaller
>companies behind the 8-ball, who had to get the product out NOW. I had
>formed the impression that this was nearly always the case. Are things
>really different in some companies? I'd be very interested to hear actual
>experiences...

--------
When I worked in the aviation industry (not long ago!) we NEVER shipped a
manual with the product. Manuals were considered a separate item from the
product itself (go figure). This is changing, but only with the help of some
very vocal customers who are demanding complete manuals with their products.

For very new products, we would release partial manuals containing as much
info as we knew at the time, with the intent of updating them as the design
firmed up...sometimes the updates happened, often not.

In my current job, we experience the deadline crunch that's been discussed
here, we even call it Crunch Mode. It helps infinitely to be involved with
engineering along the way and also makes the job much more interesting! I
think we've come a long way as technical writers over the past 10 years.
When I started 10 years ago, we were located in a separate building from
engineering and production and wrote mostly from prints and specs...we were
not encouraged to even talk to the engineers!

Let's just keep our faces in theirs & show 'em how valuable we are!


Sharon Toll

LaserMaster Corporation
Eden Prairie, Minnesota
<sharont -at- leonardo -dot- lmt -dot- com>


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