How is documentation distributed with your application?

[Paul Hanson]

-----Original Message-----
Subject: FWD: How is documentation distributed with your application?
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1. Does your company release the documentation with the application or after the application has been completed?

PRH:
It depends. Usually, with the application. This is flexible, though, based upon priorities and what the changes are.
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2.       How do customers obtain documentation ?
   a.       With the application
   b.      From the company's website
   c.       A combination of a. and b.
   d.      Other
PRH:
A
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3.       Is it reasonable to expect the documentation to be distributed at the same time as the application?

PRH:
It really depends upon your development process. I think it is reasonable to expect the user will not have to 'do' anything extra to obtain the doc but whether that means your users always have an Internet connection and are always receiving updates - that's possible. I can tell you a story about how, at job #1, I walked into my mentor's desk piled high with projects. The doc for an update was done *after* the release was out the door. The User Manual was always a release behind. What happened there was that Dev had to have someone in the Doc dept review their project/software change for doc impact. It didn't go to QA unless we signed off on it. Did we get 100% compliance? Nah. Did we get programmers *working with us* so that we were in the loop? Definitely. <shrug> It worked in that environment and may in yours too.

Paul Hanson
Technical Writer
RoboHelp ACE - http://www.adobe.com/support/forums/team_macromedia/robohelp.html
Quintrex Data Systems http://www.quintrex.com
email: phanson at quintrex.com