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Subject:Re: Need Troubleshooting advice From:Matt Ion <soundy -at- NEXTLEVEL -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 23 May 1997 09:38:15 -0800
On Thu, 22 May 1997 12:21:10 -0500, Kristy Astry wrote:
>Greetings all, decloaking from usual lurk mode to pose the question "How
>do I convince my company that creating/distributing/maintaining a
>troubleshooting guide to our software is a good idea?"
>
>Believe it or not, certain influential people at my co. see a
>troubleshooting guide as an airing of our weak points, and refuse to do
>so because they say it'll get into the hands of our competitors who will
>use them against us in a sales shootout. (whew, taking breath at this
>point.)
Troubleshooting guides, in my experience, are more to cover weaknesses
in users' systems and knowledge. For example:
Q: I installed the program and now it won't run.
A: Is the computer turned on?
Extreme example, but you get the idea. *Especially* in the PC world,
there's an infinite variety of hardware and software combinations out
there that are out of your control, but that may affect the proper
operation of YOUR software. Troubleshooting guides, IMHO, should give
basic information on tracking down the source of problems (which are
presumably due to something BESIDES your software) and how to deal with
them.
Your friend and mine,
Matt
<insert standard disclaimer here>
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