Avoiding documentation bottlenecks while maintaining quality

[Abby Klemmer]

Sylvia wrote:
 
> What is the best way to meet the deadlines (management-wise) without
> sacrificing quality or contents and without being a slave driver? How do 
I
> avoid bottlenecks and get the work done well and efficiently?

Sylvia - many of the replies you've already received have been spot-on 
(i.e., variations on the "Good/Fast/Cheap - pick two" principle; 
prioritizing the must-haves vs. the nice-to-have deliverables.)

I just wanted to add my two cents (having worked both in TWing and in TW 
management over the years) -

1. Perfection is the enemy of progress. Sometimes "Good Enough" is, well, 
good enough. This is not an excuse for putting lousy docs out there, but 
often there is a lot of value in providing a deliverable on-time that's 
95% of "where you'd like it to be" vs. delaying a release in order to get 
that last 5%. (Of course, it's the manager's job to find this balance and 
negotiate it, especially if there are people in the equation who are 
hell-bent on progress [upper mgmt] or perfection [TWers].)

2. Use the Internet for its strengths; keep any "works in progress" 
available online. For example, if you absolutely need a printed User Guide 
to go out with the product release, get that done; then, continue work on 
less-immediate needs -- for example, flesh out an FAQ section that's 
available on your company website - you can continuously add to this as 
your customer support department fields questions.

3. (This may seem kind of out-of-left-field, but it can really simplify 
things in a time crunch.)  USE STANDARD, "PLAIN JANE" EVERYTHING - For 
fonts, use Arial or Times New Roman. For page sizes, use 8.5x11 (I'm 
assuming you're in the U.S.)  Don't use the Univers Condensed font family 
on a custom-sized paper with bleed-tabs that must print to the edge of the 
paper, custom Wingdings instead of plain bullet-points, yadda yadda yadda. 
Yes, it looks really cool but if you anticipate time-crunches, all this 
stuff is just not worth it - it's virutally guaranteed to cause headaches 
and delays, just at the precise moment when you really need to rush.... 
i.e., at the 11th hour, someone in QA finds a typo; your assistant fixes 
it in the document and re-PDFs everything without realizing that he/she 
doesn't have the special fonts installed on his/her PC; and madness ensues 
when the printer delivers 25,000 manuals that look like a preschooler with 
Quark Xpress authored them. Stick to the basics - it will simplify your 
life considerably.

HTH,
Abby Klemmer
Knowledge Specialist
FactSet Research Systems Inc.
* aklemmer at factset.com
www.factset.com