Re: Checking Help

[Bonni Graham <bonnig -at- IX -dot- NETCOM -dot- COM>]

You wrote:
>We would like to improve the thoroughness of the PA teams work.  Their
>emphasis seems to be on the manual, whilst ours is on the help.

>I would appreciate any suggestions or examples of how other authors have
>their work checked.

>We have talked about producing a checklist, or creating a methodology.  Any
>better ideas?

Both of these are excellent suggestions.  What we do is create a list of product
features (based on the menus, buttons, and dialogs).  Then we require the tester
to look for each in the help, noting down the banner title where the information
was found.  Next, we give the tester a test case that shows how to check each of
the jumps and buttons in the help file; any time a jump or button does not work,
the test fills out an action report and we fix it. This way we know the help is
complete and that all the jumps and button work.

It's been working pretty well for us, except the one time the tester missed a
functionality change -- the topic was there, but the action associated with the
button had changed.  We caught it in time, but giving the tester something brief
about what each dialog does is on our plate for next time.  Of course, if you're
using inhouse testers, they probably know the product.


--
Bonni Graham
Manual Labour
bonnig -at- ix -dot- netcom -dot- com
San Diego, CA

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Post Message:	TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
Get Commands:	LISTSERV -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU with "help" in body.
Unsubscribe:	LISTSERV -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU with "signoff TECHWR-L"
Listowner:	ejray -at- ionet -dot- net