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Subject:Re: Is it just me? S/W doc question From:Stuart Burnfield <slb -at- FS -dot- COM -dot- AU> Date:Tue, 3 Jun 1997 08:54:19 +0800
Ernie said:
> There is something to be said (fill in your own "something", though)
> about the ability to add features almost on-the-fly.
There are two things:
1. How easy it is to make a change.
2. Who decides whether the change is a good thing.
The first one is clear. The easier it is to apply agreed changes, the
better. The second is trickier. Do these late-breaking 'features' help
users to better perform their tasks?
My opinion, not backed up by any scientific reserach whatsoever, is
that 'improvements' that pop into a developer's head (or anyone's head)
late in the development phase will be a random mix of good, bad and
indifferent. Net benefit roughly zero, at a cost of extra programming,
QA and documenting time.
> One thing we're
> experimenting with here is to have the development engineers' Data
> Dictionary files available to writers (and others who need the info).
> As long as one is trained in reading them, these things are inherently
> more reliably up to date than a tech-specs document that an engineer has
> to update separately from working on the code.
This is nice, especially if you can isolate whether the change is likely
to have affect the docs -- screen shots, field names, menu paths, etc.
Regards
---
Stuart Burnfield By the old Campaspe River
Functional Software Pty Ltd mailto:slb -at- fs -dot- com -dot- au
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